


The Improbability of Safe Harbour

by Steampunk_Hobbit



Series: Safe Harbour [1]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Good Samaritan, Mother's Love, Serious, Worry, big hearts get you nothing when it comes to Cemetery Wind, compassion - Freeform, human-Cybertronian friendship, in the country, post Dark of the Moon AU, pre Age of Extinction AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-18 23:49:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11301372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steampunk_Hobbit/pseuds/Steampunk_Hobbit
Summary: Finally managing to shake off his Decepticon pursuers, Perceptor inadvertently winds up crashing to Earth and into the lives of a widowed mother and her daughter. They take him in, despite the mother knowing what could happen if they're found out. This act could put her daughter in danger, but she is willing to risk their lives in order to save his. post-DoTM, pre-AoE AU.





	1. Iron Giant

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been in the works for months, and is testament to the resolve I know I need if I ever want to get anywhere when I ever fully enter into the original writing world. It's a product of an AU that came to mind before I managed to watch Age of Extinction, a post-DoTM and pre-AoE AU where the Canadian government provides asylum for Autobots fleeing Cemetery Wind. This fic wasn't going to be the first one, but in the sense of continuity, it fit. I can't believe I finished it!
> 
> Warning(s): the main human characters of this story are Christians. Please do not flame this story simply because of their faith (and my own). It's not appreciated, and it will have no affect on me since I've completed this story. Flames will be useless, so save your breath.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, or the Bayverse movies. If I did, they wouldn't be so flawed. I also don't own Perceptor. I only own Danielle DeClan and her daughter, Jetta.

The small planetoid rumbled ominously beneath his pedes, reminding him once again that it was geologically unstable and that it would be pertinent that he get off of it as soon as he was able.

Which was something he was more than willing to do. Unfortunately, he wasn't alone, and he knew that, as soon as he left the surface, he would be targeted by the Decepticons that had been tailing him for lightyears.

The Helix Nebula was notorious for its communication and sensor jamming capabilities thanks to its highly dense heart—a white dwarf—and the gasses that gave it its unnerving infrared glow. Perceptor had chosen this sector of space because it would hide him from the Decepticons while he repaired himself and his ship. But now the planet felt like it was about to give him the boot, and he would be forced to expose himself.

He attempted to scan the ground surrounding him, but the information that came back to him was highly corrupted. He let out a light grumble, coming to the conclusion that the same interference that rendered communications and sensors non-effective was effecting his scans as well. He was beginning to come to the conclusion that hiding out in the Helix Nebula had been a very bad idea.

The ground suddenly heaved and bucked underneath him, and he stumbled back. Waving his arms in hopes of regaining his balance, he quickly found himself toppling backwards as his heels caught on a small rise in the rock. He hit the ground with enough force that he felt the rock underneath him crumble slightly. The shaking never ceased, and a dull roar that seemed to originate from deep underground steadily grew louder and louder. He could feel it rumbling deep within his chest.

He flinched when the rock suddenly split apart inches above his helm. Noxious gasses hissed out from the crack, and the paint on the top of his helm blistered at the heat that accompanied them. His could no longer let himself struggle what to do next—he was going to have to evacuate.

Scrambling to his pedes, he took off running as fast as his long legs and the violently shifting ground would allow. He held up his left arm and began to tap commands into the small screen fastened to the plates of his forearm. Pinching the screen with two fingers, he drew a small circle and connected his comm. to his ship's computer.

"Perceptor to the _Observer_ , initiate engine calibration sequence!" he commanded as he leapt over a low shelf of slate-like rock that threatened to trip him up.

There was a click as the computer received his command. "You are not on board."

Perceptor would have sighed if he wasn't too busy trying to use the planet's thin atmosphere to keep his core temperature at acceptable levels. Instead, he put as much insistence into his digital voice as he could manage. " _Observer_ , I may not be on board, but I am coming as quickly as I am able. This planet is about to self-destruct and I can't risk waiting for the engines to warm up once I am on board."

There was another click, and up ahead he heard the distinct sound of the _Observer_ 's engines coming online. He looked up and lowered his targeting monocle over his right optic. With its help, he calculated that he was at least 500 mechanometers from his ship. He could only hope that he would be able to make it there in time.

That hope was short-lived. When he was only 250 mechanometers from his ship, a nearby mountain exploded, ripping itself apart in a manner more violent than any mountain he had ever come to know of. Chunks of rock and lava flew everywhere and Perceptor once again found himself flying from his pedes as a shockwave caused by the blast slammed into him.

Something splattered against his right shoulder, and it took a moment before the pain registered. As he pushed himself into a sitting position, he peered down at his shoulder and let out a gasp. Hissing and popping and oozing off of him, was molten rock that was quickly melting his own armour. Red metal hissed and melted before dripping to the ground.

The pain was most excruciating, but he fought through it and climbed back to his pedes. He could hear the lava rushing down what remained of the mountain's slopes, and just by the movement he could perceive out of the corner of his optic he knew that the river of death was heading in his direction. So he pushed through the pain and took off running again, this time pushing his limits to the point that several warnings popped up on his HUD. By the time he reached the ramp that lead up into his ship, his hip joints were making strange grinding sounds and the lava had burned through his amour and was now eating at the wiring of his upper arm.

In the airlock, he yanked the hatch closed behind him. "Computer, douse me in coolant! Quickly!" he cut off the computer before it could protest. Seconds later, he was blasted with the frigid liquid from all angles, and he couldn't stop the yelp that left his voicebox at the shock that rippled through his systems. Quickly, he lost feeling in his servos and his pedes, and by the time he told the computer to stop his optics had frozen over and his voicebox barely functioned. But a quick check of his shoulder told him that the lava had solidified and that he was no longer in danger of losing his dominant arm.

The computer drained the airlock of coolant before it opened the door separating Perceptor from the rest of the ship. He fought off the effects of the coolant as he made his way to the bridge, where he sat down in the pilot's chair and went about bringing the engines to full power. A quick glance outside told him that the situation had steadily gotten worse. The lava flow hadn't yet reached the ship thanks to some large boulders, but it wouldn't be long before the lava overcame them and resumed its course.

Perceptor grunted as it quickly became apparent that the mobility of his right arm had been severely compromised. He would need to figure out how to fix it and hopefully before he met the Decepticons again. He grabbed the yoke in both hands as he initiated the liftoff sequence, retracting his targeting monocle so he could have a clear view of what he had to do.

His ship shuddered as it lifted into the air. The mountain let out another explosive blast and his ship shook. Hardly daring to draw in a breath, he toggled the accelerator switch and found himself being thrown back into his seat. He pulled on the yoke and soon his ship was rocketing into space.

His relief at escaping the dangers of the planet were short-lived, however. Seconds after he managed to leave the atmosphere, his ship was struck broadside with a blast from a familiar ship. Perceptor turned and stared out a convenient porthole located on the starboard side, over where his small sitting area at the back of the tiny bridge was. The gunmetal grey ship loomed large, lit up by the many molten rivers and lakes that now snaked across the planet's surface.

He turned to the weapons controls and aimed both laser cannons at the Decepticon ship, hoping that the nebula wasn't interfering with his targeting systems as well. He quickly fired off a few short bursts, thankfully striking one of the enemy's engines, which let off a satisfying explosion as the fuel inside them ignited. Seeing as he had sufficiently slowed the ship for now, he powered up his ship's hyperdrive and set the computer to keep it on a straight course until he made it out of the nebula.

Moments before his ship leapt away, Perceptor's attention was drawn back to the planet. Through the small porthole he watched as massive canyons opened up on the planet's surface before it promptly exploded, sending out a massive shockwave that struck the Decepticon ship and fractured it into billions of pieces accompanied by a bright flash of light.

Perceptor was relieved that the planet took out the Decepticon ship for him, but it suddenly occurred to him that he was in the path of the shockwave as well. He gripped the console in front of him tightly as he hoped with all his might that the hyperdrive would engage before the planet dragged him down unto death with it.

At that moment, two things happened. Everything was thrown into utter chaos as the shockwave reached him and struck his ship just as the hyperdrive engaged. Perceptor was thrown from the pilot's seat as the _Observer_ was thrown through hyperspace, totally out of control.

"Warning: Critical systems failure imminent," the computer reported.

Perceptor grimaced, but all he could do was lay there as the whine of the hyperdrive grew gradually louder. When it reached an near deafening pitch, the bridge was filled with blinding white light and Perceptor had to shut his optics lest they fried from sensory overload.

_This is it, I am going to offline,_ he thought gravely. In all his stellar-cycles, he had never thought this was the way he was going to go. He never thought that offlining in hyperspace was how he was going to find his spark rejoining the Well. A lab explosion or maybe in battle, sure, but not _this_.

The hyperdrive let out the most agonizing, hideous _shriek_ before there was a concussive blast that left Perceptor's processor feeling kind of fuzzy. The _Observer_ shook and he found himself rattling across the surface of the deck like a piece of oil-taffy in a jar that was being shaken by a youngling, and he couldn't help but feel relief that the explosion hadn't torn the ship apart.

After a few moments, the shaking calmed down enough that he was able to climb back to his feet. He peered out the front viewscreen and gaped when he saw that his ship had dropped out of hyperspace and was now careening towards another planet, this one blue and green instead of slate grey. He grabbed the yoke and pulled back as he slid into the pilot's chair again, but the ship didn't respond.

"Computer, did the detonation of the hyperdrive destroy manual control?" he demanded as he tried to illicit a reaction from the controls. When the computer didn't respond, Perceptor's spark did a little skip as it sank in that the computer must have also been destroyed in the explosion. He leapt up from the seat and dashed to the back of the bridge. He glanced out the viewscreen again as his ship rocketed past the planet's moon. He then reached into the storage cabinet next to the sitting area and pulled out his remaining energon cubes and subspaced them.

He then dashed out the door and into the hall beyond. It was there that he heard a strange whistling noise. Running down the hall, he reached the door that lead to the airlock—or _had_. Perceptor felt his optics widen at the sight of open space where the airlock used to be. The only entrance exit of the ship used to open up between the ship's twin engines, so if the airlock was gone… the engines were gone also. That was why he couldn't control the ship!

With a worried huff, Perceptor turned and raced back up the hall until he reached about halfway, where he plunged through a door and into the ship's only escape pod. He hoped that it had remained relatively intact, because it was his only hope now.

Falling into one of the three seats in the pod, he strapped himself in before pulling on the lever on the console in front of him. The pod lurched as it sprang away from the ship, narrowly missing one of the many metallic objects that orbited the planet as it did.

Soon, the pod was following the ship on its uncontrolled descent to the surface. Perceptor knew that his own descent was not going to be comfortable since the pod wasn't equipped with an engine. This class of pod was built to protect its occupants until help arrived.

* * *

A silent sigh escaped her lips as she lead her daughter up the front steps of the church. The eight year old was her normally chatty self, which was not helping the massive headache that assaulted her head. At the front door, she stopped and turned to her only child. "Jetta, please, could you just stop talking for a moment?" she asked gently.

Her daughter looked up at her with wide blue eyes, ones just like her father's. "But…"

She refrained from letting out another sigh. "Sweetheart, Mummy's not feeling all that well right now, okay? My head hurts and it's making it really hard to listen to what you're saying. I want to listen to what you want to say, but I really need to remember what I have to talk to Pastor Sam about."

For a brief second, Jetta's shoulder's drooped and her lip stuck out in a pout. But then she sucked that lip back in and lifted her shoulders as she seemingly overcame her disappointment. "Okay, Mummy," she said with a nod.

Danielle gave her daughter a thankful smile before she opened the front door of the small country church. She let Jetta enter first before following her in. They found Pastor Sam in the large fellowship hall across the entrance from the sanctuary, where he was putting up a poster for the harvest banquet at the end of the month. She quietly cleared her throat to alert the man to her presence.

When Sam saw her, he smiled. "There you are!" His smile faltered a bit. "Thanks for coming by, I know with today being that day and all—"

With a calm wave, she made his words grind to a halt. "Don't worry about it," she told him quietly. "I know it was a last-minute thing, and nobody can help it when they get the flu." Despite the fact that it was _that_ day, she knew that she was the only one who was going to be able to fill in as Sunday School teacher for the middle-schoolers that coming Sunday. Willaby Park was small, and though most of the population went to Willaby Mennonite, there was nobody but her available to sub. Her friend, an older woman by the name of Mary VerBoom, had caught a nasty flu while she was in Calgary the week before, and had been bedridden for the last three days.

Pastor Sam went over to one of the tables shoved up against the far wall and picked up a small stack of papers stapled together. Danielle closed the distance and accepted the papers with a small smile. "Thanks, I'll read it over tonight and figure out a game plan. Need to keep those kids focused, right?"

Willaby Park was small for a hamlet, only having an average of 50 residents. Danielle had moved here with her husband because they had wanted to live somewhere quiet, where there wasn't much traffic and the world seemed far away. Thus, since the hamlet was small, and the population was half comprised of seniors, there weren't all that many kids. There were a lot of middle-graders, but not many young children or teenagers. She had to suppress a roll of her eyes at the thought of the chaos that would come when the middle-graders became teenagers when it flashed through her mind.

And since she was teaching the middle-graders this Sunday, her class was going to be quite large. She wasn't sure how she really felt about that.

"You don't have to worry about the class, Danielle," Sam assured her. "Mary says they're well behaved."

_Why does that give me such a bad feeling?_ she couldn't help but grumble mentally. _What if they're only good for Mary?_ At 28 years of age, Danielle was uncertain on how they would view her as their teacher. Even good little Christian kids could get into mischief if they didn't respect you.

She went to point this out to Sam, but was cut off when a loud _bang_ reverberated from outside. Instead, she uttered, "What?

Throwing the back door open, Danielle stepped outside and scanned the area around the church with her eyes, trying to figure out what could have caused such a loud sound. Stunt jets usually trained over the hamlet, but they usually didn't break the sound barrier and create sonic booms while training.

After a few moments, her searching gaze landed on a trail of smoke that arched across the sky. Jetta pushed her arm out of the way as she joined her outside, and Danielle didn't miss how her daughter's eyes widened at the sight of the smoke. "Cool! It looks like a meteor fell to Earth, Mummy!" she exclaimed. She grabbed onto her mother's hand and yanked her down the back steps of the church. Danielle was helpless but to follow as Jetta dragged her around to the front of the church, where the car was parked. Jetta's small fingers pressed against all the right pressure points between the bones in her hand.

Sam followed them, and said as they climbed into her car, "Let me know what you find, okay?" he stated, as if he knew that Jetta would convince her to go check it out. "And call me if you need to ask any more questions."

Danielle nodded and gave him a small smile. "Will do. You take care, Sam."

It didn't take long for Danielle to pilot her small sedan onto the highway, where she followed the rapidly dissipating smoke trail. Jetta chattered on excitedly, filling the interior with her loud voice, which didn't help the woman's intense headache. But she didn't have it in her heart to tell her daughter to quiet down again, so she suffered quietly as Jetta lived in the moment. The eight year old was an avid space nut, and couldn't seem to get enough of exoplanets, nebulas, constellations, and galaxies. Danielle could hardly earn enough money to keep up with her daughter's insatiable appetite for information about space, thus Jetta only got new books on her birthday and Christmas.

And Danielle swore she spent most of her time while Jetta was off at school going through Pinterest for pins about space and the library archives for any new books about the subject. Unfortunately, it was looking like the libraries were beginning to run dry in that regard. It kind of reminded her of when she had cleared both the school library and the municipal library out of all their books on weather and volcanoes growing up.

A sense of deja vu began to creep up on Danielle as the smoke trail lead them down a set of roads that she new quite well. Her stomach turned as it came to mind that they were rapidly coming up on the small piece of land that their small home stood upon, and she couldn't help but start praying that whatever had fallen out of the sky had missed their house. She couldn't afford the repairs if the asteroid somehow damaged the house, and she didn't think that her insurance would cover damage from a space-born object.

Finally, she turned her sedan up their driveway, her heart sinking lower and lower as the smoke only became thicker as it hovered in the sky, white like steam.

"No… _no, no, no_!" she moaned as she pulled the car to a stop by the front steps of the tiny farm-house. Every window she could see on the front of the house had been shattered, probably from the sonic boom of the asteroid that had drawn her from the depths of the church in the first place. "I can't afford to replace all these windows!"

She threw the sedan into park and quickly climbed out. She stumbled a few steps in the direction of the front steps before a loud _pop!_ yanked her attention around towards the small workshop her husband had used…when he was still around. Steam or smoke billowed out from inside, escaping through the gaping hole that now faced the driveway. More "no"s flew from her mouth as she sprinted over to the workshop, her heart breaking at the sight of what had been done to one of the only things that still proved that her husband had walked the Earth.

When she reached the hole, she peered inside, but couldn't see anything. The interior of the workshop was pitch black, and whatever light that could have filtered inside had been blocked out when a cloud drifted in front of the sun. Danielle's heart began to pound as adrenaline flooded her systems—she couldn't tell why she was so spooked, but she had a feeling that it was because something had been forcefully changed in her life. She toed the exposed soil churned up in a long rut that ended at the hole as she tried to bring up the courage to check out the damage done to the inside of the workshop.

But just as she went to reach for her cell phone so she could use its flashlight app, something moved. The screech of metal on metal told her it wasn't just something falling off a shelf or something toppling over, and she couldn't help but yelp in fright. Stepping back, she couldn't take her eyes off of the dark depths of the wooden structure. Her unnamed fear was soon realized.

There was more screeching before two blue points of light suddenly flickered on. They moved slightly, and flickered, before they rose high into the air. Danielle's gaze followed them and she flinched as there was more screeching of metal on metal before there was a loud _thump_. The ground trembled for a moment, and when the surface under her went still again she noticed that her knees were practically knocking against each other.

* * *

Well, this was a most peculiar situation he had managed to get himself into.

Initially, the pod's rather rough landing had knocked him into stasis. Fortunately, he found himself regaining consciousness at the sound of hard debris _ping_ ing off of the pod's hull. It only took him a couple of kliks to determine that he hadn't been damaged beyond a dislocated piston in his lower left leg and a rather nasty dent to the crest above his forehelm. It seemed that the pod lived up to its reputation.

He sat there for a moment, in the dark. The console in front of him had gone dark while he had been in stasis, thus he was left to sit there with the console's dark screen barely illuminated by the light of his optics.

He contemplated about the world he had landed on. It was green and blue from a distance, and after careful examination of what he remembered seeing through the ship's viewscreen, he came to the conclusion that the blue areas of the planet were actually seas comprised of some sort of liquid, and that the green indicated that there had to be life on this world.

And what kind of life…well he didn't know, and he hoped that none of it was sentient.

Slowly, he pressed the button on the clasp of the harness that fastened him to his seat. The harness snapped off and away from him, and he didn't waste any time before he stood and reached up for the hatch above his helm. He grasped the large lever with both servos and wrenched it around until the hatch popped open with a loud _hiss_. He waited a moment before he stood up on his toes and grasped the edges of the opening, hoisting himself up and out of the pod.

He paused at the opening and swept his gaze around, taking in his new surroundings. He ran a scan from left to right when it became apparent that it was too dark to make any distinct deductions on his surroundings, but he stopped scanning when his sight landed on the gaping hole in a wall across from the pod in the space he wound up in.

Well, he had made an entrance. And by what his scans ended up telling him, he was in an artificial structure—leading him to believe that the life on this world was quite possibly more sentient than he was hoping for. It would be most beneficial if he hastily took his leave and find somewhere better to hide until he was able to make contact with some friendlies.

But as soon as he jumped down off of the pod, he spotted a tiny form standing in the massive hole his explosive landing had created. It stood there, trembling, staring at him with wide organic optics that broadcasted the terror the little being had to have been feeling right then. Perceptor straightened and held very still as he took in the life form, not wishing to accidentally scare it away before he could get a good look at it.

Slowly, but surely, he was able to inch himself closer to the light that seemed almost afraid to go any farther than the threshold of the hole. Once he felt the warmth of the sun on his armour, he let out a breath of relief and turned his full attention to the small being that appeared to want to glitch right on the spot.

He slowly crouched down before it, going even slower than he had walked, in order to level the field a bit. He scanned it in hopes of dredging up some information on it before it ran off. Halfway through the scan he noticed the small electronic device on its person and scanned it. His scans brought up a plethora of information, and he ended up stumbling upon a language. The device spat the language at him as if it were irritated by the vast difference in their technologies, and in response Perceptor sent it a pacifying pulse as he looked over the complex language that almost put the complexity of Cybertronian to shame.

The exchange with the device and his analyzation of the language took less that a second, his processors churning through the information until it was stored in his language cortex. Once he was finished, he turned his attention back to the organic trembling before him and he deduced he had to find out how to calm it down before it ended up running away or dying right there and then.

* * *

It was so _tall_. Danielle had to crane her head back in order to look it in what she hoped was its face. It was shaped like a man—humanoid, but all made of metal and her terror-addled brain didn't know what to think of it, despite the fact that it caused something to itch at the back of her head.

But all of her thought processes ground to a halt when it suddenly met her gaze with two blue ring-like irises of its own. It blinked them and it tilted its head to the side before it opened what looked like a mouth and _spoke_.

In _perfect English_.

"Please do not be afraid. I mean you no harm."

This was too much for her poor mind to take. Her eyes rolled up into her head and her knees promptly gave out on her before she slumped to the ground in a dead faint.


	2. Common Sense

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to chapter 2! Thank you so much, guys, for the comment and the kudos! It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling in my chest.
> 
> I'm thinking of shortening the time between updates from every second day to an update a day, since I've got the whole story completed and I feel that I've finished editing it. This is the first story I've posted in over a year, so I might just be overexcited, but...
> 
> Haha.
> 
> BTW, this story takes place in 2014.

When Danielle felt herself returning to consciousness, confusion swept through her like a murky tidal wave. Why was she lying down? Wasn't she just driving home from the church?

Oh no! No, no, _no_! Had she somehow crashed the car? Was she lying down because she was now in hospital? Was her baby alright?! Was Jetta alright?!

Her hearing returned to her gradually. And when it did, she heard Jetta say something to someone. A lightly accented voice answered her, sounding vaguely British, and Danielle found herself calming down when she found herself piecing it all together.

Everything was alright. They had had an accident, but it sounded like Jetta had made it out okay. She was talking to the doctor, and everything would be alright.

Danielle managed to pry her eyes open, and when she managed to focus them her gaze was met by the sight of the sky and numerous fluffy clouds. Confusion was quick to set in. "Wait, we're not in hospital?"

She wracked her brain for an answer but none came. "Jetta? Who are you talking to?" Slowly, she pushed herself up into a sitting position. "If he isn't a paramedic, I don't know what I'll do. Remember what I told you about talking to st—" Her voice died out right then and there when she saw that her daughter was indeed not talking to a paramedic, but was in fact talking to the monster that had stepped out of her husband's workshop! Danielle took in the massive red and black form sitting next to her daughter as her mind ground painfully to a halt. Her eyes widened as the events leading up to her fainting resurfaced and she let out a scream of terror.

As the giant metal being jolted in surprise at her sudden vocal attack, Jetta shot to her feet and raced over to her. "Mummy! It's okay. Perceptor didn't mean to scare you!"

It didn't feel like she was able to pull in enough air, but she was able to shout, "Didn't _mean_ to?!"

Jetta stuck out her hands and grasped her mother's, the worried look in her eyes pleading with her to calm down. "Mummy, Perceptor didn't mean to wreck Daddy's workshop. He couldn't help it. It was just an accident."

Danielle forced herself to look at the giant in the eye, and refused to give in to the urge to look away as the behemoth's glowing blue eyes met hers with a calm that threatened to drown her. But in the end, she was the first to avert her gaze, and she did so with a sigh.

"He came from outer space, Mummy!" Jetta exclaimed as she helped her mother climb to her feet. "He says he's an Autobot! Like the ones that stopped the bad robots from blowing up Chicago." For a fraction of a second, a frown appeared on her face. "Well, _almost_ blowing up Chicago."

Danielle couldn't stop herself from tensing up at her daughter's words, glancing up at the supposed 'Autobot' again as what Jetta had said whirled around in her head with all the force of a hurricane. First the workshop was destroyed, and now _this_? _This can't be happening,_ she told herself, heart lodging itself in her throat. If this Autobot, Perceptor as her daughter called him, was truly the same as those Transformers that had been involved in the whole Chicago incident, which had become the 9/11 of her daughter's generation, then she was screwed. _They_ were screwed.

It was no secret that humanity wasn't as trusting in the Autobots as they once were, the Canadians being a little more trusting than the Americans by and by, but that didn't change the fact that if the wrong people found out he was _here_ , their lives would be at risk. Humans were quick to jump to the wrong conclusions.

There was a government agency, some branch that was especially created to take out Decepticons. Danielle had done her research on how to tell the difference between Autobots and Decepticons so she would always be able to take care of her baby girl, and she had come upon the unsettling truth of what that agency was really doing.

Her daughter took advantage of the dazed look on her face and ran back over to the Autobot before she could protest. Danielle watched with muted horror as the Autobot gently nudged Jetta with one of his massive index fingers, and though this action elicited a giggle from her daughter, Danielle could only imagine how easy it would be for 'Perceptor' to accidentally break her if he wasn't paying attention.

But the longer she watched her daughter interact with the alien, the more she found herself calming down. And the more she watched, the more insistent a certain memory became as it tried to surface and turn her attention away from them. She shoved it back down and tried to figure out how she was supposed to go from there. What was she supposed to do with a robot that was two stories tall and had no chance at blending in?

* * *

When the organic had collapsed at the sound of the foreign words he had uttered, he thought he had killed it. Panic shot through him as countless possible answers to what had just happened raced through his processor, from the possibility that it had merely glitched, like Prowl on a bad day, to the fact that he might have just uttered some words considered so sacred to this species that they literally offlined at the sound of them.

What made it worse was, nano-kliks after the organic collapsed, a smaller, younger organic had come running from what looked suspiciously like an alt-form, screaming. "Mummy! Mummy, are you _okay_?!"

Perceptor found himself rooted to the spot, his servo opening and then closing, and then opening again as he tried to figure out what he should do. Should he touch it and check to see if it was okay? Or should he run another scan?

He quickly scanned the prone organic again, and carefully read over the results that popped up on his HUD. He let out a sigh of relief when his scans told him that it was fine, and that "Mummy" had just glitched. She should come around soon enough.

"What did you _do_ to her?" the small organic shouted up at him as he dismissed the results from his HUD. The words left the being's mouth with such ferocity that he couldn't help but jump a little in surprise. "Did you suck her brains out?!"

"What?" he couldn't help but be a little affronted at the claim, even though he didn't know what 'brains' were. "No! I did not suck anything out."

The smaller organic squinted up at him, her expression a perfect image of total suspicion. "Then what did you _do_?"

Perceptor shifted his stance a bit so he was now kneeling, and he slowly clasped his servos together. "I believe I frightened her to the point she could not handle it," he explained. "I did not mean to frighten her, but I believe she was already overwhelmed to the point that when I tried to tell her that I wasn't a threat, she couldn't cope."

The organic continued to stare at him and silence fell between them. The moments stretched on, but eventually the organic crumpled and a loud sob escaped her. Perceptor watched with wide optics as her tiny shoulders shook and she leaned down and pressed her face to "Mummy"'s shoulder as if to seek comfort from the larger organic.

Perceptor canted his helm to the side, observing every aspect of this interaction. It quickly became apparent that the little one was trying to get over the horror that must of flooded her when she saw Mummy go down. He had seen it before with sparklings and their carriers.

The little one stayed like she was for a good long while, to the point that Perceptor had allowed her to cry in peace but now he was beginning to feel like an awkward silence had settled down around them. Taking a steadying breath, he quietly reached over and gently rested the tip of his index finger on the little one's back. The tiny being stiffened at his touch, and she lifted her face just enough so she turn her head and look up at him out of the corner of her optic.

For a moment, he let their gazes meet, before he let his servo drop to the ground in front of his knees. "I'm sorry," he said, lowering the volume of his voice so his words sounded less intimidating. He slowly peered back at the hole his landing had caused to the structure behind him, appearing oddly tranquil with how it was framed by foliage that had miraculously survived his arrival. That structure was part of this little one's home, and he had damaged it.

"That's Daddy's workshop," the little one said, drawing his attention back to her. She had straightened and now was sitting on her knees in a similar way as he was. She fiddled with her fingers as she sat there, staring up at him with a kind of sadness in her grey eyes that he found rather out of place. "He would build stuff in there when he wasn't working."

The term 'Daddy' didn't translate well, and he had to resort to scanning Mummy's device once again, where he soon learned that 'Daddy' was a synonym for 'father', 'male parent', and 'mech creator' or 'sire'. Curiosity satisfied in that part, Perceptor asked the obvious question. "Where is your 'daddy'?"

His search through Mummy's phone had revealed that the term 'mummy' referred to the remains of ancient members of this planet's dominant species—humans—while an alternate spelling—'mommy'—was a term used by little ones such as the one before him in which they called their femme creator, or carrier. This little one was the larger organic's offspring—but where was her mech creator?

As soon as the words left his mouth, she began to sniffle, and tears began to run down her cheeks as her face screwed up a little. Perceptor's spark plummeted at the sight—he had seen more than one sparkling descend into tears for various reasons, and he never knew how he would have handled it if he were ever presented with such a situation. Now he was faced with a crying sparkling—a human sparkling—and he didn't know what to do.

Until the little threw her helm back and began to bawl. Instinctively, he reached for her, moving his servo so as to keep from startling her. He paid careful attention to his fingers as he wrapped them around her and lifted her into the air. She grew panicked when she noticed how high into the air he lifted her before he cupped his other servo under the one holding her. He brought both servos to his chestplates and held her there. It didn't take her long to realize that he wasn't going to hurt her and relaxed, and not long after he felt her press the side of her helm to the part of his chest over his spark.

The little one continued to cry, but her sobbing gradually slowed and then dissipated into mild sniffles. Perceptor continued to hold her until she grew quiet, and even then he didn't move his servos. Instead, he lifted his gaze from the little one and looked about, taking in the flat plane that stretched all around the humans' home, and how it quickly swept up into rolling hills not all that far away. For a moment, he observed the mountains that rose up sharply beyond the hills, standing the testament of time like silent sentinels. The wound on his shoulder ached for a moment as the mountains brought him back to the mad scramble he had endured to get off that planet before it could blow itself apart and snuff his spark. If he could have brought himself to think it, he would have found it to be quite the miracle that he had survived that.

"Daddy died." The quiet voice gently tugged him from his thoughts and brought his attention back to the human in his servos. Two grey optics met his gaze, red from her tears. "My daddy's not here because he died."

Perceptor didn't need to translate what the word 'died' meant. He instantly knew that 'died' equated to the Cybertronian word 'offlined', though he wasn't sure why. Again, he found himself saying, "I'm sorry."

Silence descended between them again before Perceptor deduced that now was the time that it would be appropriate for introductions. "What is your name, little one?" It was something to take her mind off of memories she must have still considered quite painful.

The human sparkling sniffed again before she replied. "Jetta. Jetta DeClan."

"Hello, Jetta," he said with a kind smile. "I'm glad we could finally introduce ourselves properly. My name is Perceptor."

Her response was immediate, though rather quiet. "Nice to meet you, Perceptor."

A moment passed before he asked, "How are you fairing? I am sorry that I upset you with my question."

Jetta merely met his gaze once more and gave him a feeble half-shrug. "Daddy's been gone for a long time. I don't want to be upset about it, because Mummy says that Daddy's gone to heaven and that I'm going to see him again… but I still miss him." She snuggled as close as she could up against his chestplates and let out a little sigh.

Perceptor let her stay like that and ran another scan over Mummy to see how she was doing. His scans told him that she was starting to come out of it, so he stood and retreated a few of his strides away from the destruction he had caused. He couldn't help but mull over the fact that, in this environment, his pedesteps were quite large, something that was quite strange to him since he wasn't all that large compared to other Cybertronians.

He sat down on the green foliage that was sprouting up from the ground, and once he was situated, he carefully leaned over and rested the backs of his servos upon the ground and held them there until Jetta climbed off. When he retracted his servos, Jetta didn't waste any time and plunked herself down next to him.

Perceptor scanned Jetta's mother again, finding that she was taking longer than he anticipated to come around despite what his scans told him. But he was quickly drawn away from his befuddlement when Jetta piped up, "You're a good Transformer, right?"

He blinked. "Pardon?"

"You're an Autobot—I recognize the symbol on the side of your head. Mummy says the Autobots are the good Transformers."

Perceptor's optics lit up at her words. "Ah, yes! In simple terms, the Autobots are good Transformers" the term sounded rather odd when used as a synonym for 'Cybertronian', but Jetta wasn't the first one to use the colloquialism "and yes, I am an Autobot." As soon as he stopped speaking, though, his faceplates fell. If Jetta knew what Autobots were, then that meant that the war was already here.

But he wouldn't bother her about the war. Instead, he turned his attention to the gaping hole in the workshop that he had caused when he landed. "I am sorry for damaging your father's workshop. And I'm sorry I frightened your… mummy."

Jetta planted her hands on the ground to either side and slightly behind her. As she leaned back on them, she let out a little sigh. "I guess you couldn't really help it, Mr. Perceptor. It's not everyday you see someone fall from the sky." She did a little shrug and added, "And it's not every day that you meet an alien."

Silence settled between them once again, but this time it was a calm silence that didn't feel like it had to be broken.

Only a few short minutes later, though, Mummy began to stir.

* * *

It took a few moments for Danielle to recuperate from the shock she had been given by Perceptor's appearance. When she was sure that she had stopped shaking, she slowly climbed to her feet and dusted herself off.

Without any more words to the Autobot who had taken up residence in her yard, Danielle strode to the house and let out a moan when she saw the large shards of glass that littered her front porch. Nearly every window that faced out into the yard had been blown in—there was probably more glass inside than there was outside, meaning that she would have to clean out the glass before she'd allow Jetta inside.

So that's what she did. She threw all her energy into sweeping up and vacuuming up the glass that had been flung inside, using it to drown out and bury the emotions raging inside her. She didn't want to think about what Perceptor's presence would spell for her tiny family's future, or how much it would end up costing to replace all the windows and how it would impact what meagre wages she managed to earn down at the diner.

The sun had long since set by the time she had cleaned up enough of the glass that she deemed it safe enough for Jetta to come inside. Of course, that meant most of the rooms with windows facing out into the yard were practically spotless, but only one of the rooms upstairs had been given the same treatment—Jetta's room. And even then, when she ushered her daughter inside so she could sit her down at the kitchen table and set a plate of leftovers down in front of her, she didn't let her daughter take her shoes off. Somehow she was going to have to afford new windows and a professional cleaner so she was sure it was safe to walk around without shoes on.

Perceptor peered in through the massive window frame that used to belong to the kitchen's picture window as Danielle sank into her chair, which was positioned across their tiny table from Jetta's, with her own plate of leftovers. She let out a tired sigh, and when she picked up her fork after saying a brief grace, the way her hand shook was enough to make her doubt if she was even going to be able to get anything to her mouth without dropping most of it in her lap or on the floor.

She attempted to get a forkful of the stew-like pasta dish to her mouth, but some of it plopped back to her plate, and she hissed in frustration. Perceptor saw this and let out a quiet hum.

After supper, Jetta gave her mother a hard time over going to bed, and it wasn't until after she went out and said goodnight to Perceptor that Danielle was able to get her to sit down and begin the wind-down routine that Jetta had surreptitiously begun when she was six. Once she was sitting contentedly in front of their television and riveted to an episode of _Rescue Heroes_ , Danielle managed to slip away and went outside. She brought with her one of her husband's headlamps and strapped it to her head as she made her way across the yard to her husband's workshop. When she got there, she was met by a surprise.

Perceptor was standing next to what could only have been his escape pod, having set up a tall floodlight that didn't resemble any floodlight she had ever seen. He was seemingly staring at a screen built into his left forearm by the white light of the floodlight, and didn't notice her presence there in the workshop until she accidentally kicked aside one of her husband's old licence plates.

Instead of jumping like she had anticipated, he simply glanced over his shoulder at her before going back to what he had been doing. Danielle eyed his pod before she disappeared deeper into the workshop, where she gathered up an old paint can half-full with nails and one of her husband's hammers. Her muscles protested at the weight of the hammer despite the fact that the weight of it usually wasn't a problem. She couldn't help but sigh at this before she turned and began to make her way out through the maze of the workshop.

As she went to step through the hole in the wall, Perceptor's voice stopped her. "Danyelle," he said, his accent putting emphasis on the 'i' in her name and twisting it into a strong 'yuh' sound, "you have been through a lot this solar…day. What are you doing?"

Danielle stopped and looked up at him. He had stopped with his fingers posed over the screen on his forearm. Another sigh escaped her as her back began to ache, making it feel like a knife was being jammed into her spine. "When you came crashing into this workshop, you blew in some of the windows on my house. I need to go board them up for security's sake. My nerves will not let me go to sleep tonight after what has happened today, and the windows will only make it worse. It's a major security risk." It made her wish that her husband was here.

She disappeared outside as soon as she was finished speaking, and made her way up to her house, taking care to watch her step as she went. She set the bucket and the hammer under one of the windows before she went back to the workshop for something to cover the windows with. She wouldn't be able to carry any wood, but she knew where her husband's tarps were. They would have to do until she could get those windows replaced.

When she went back into the workshop, she was surprised to see Perceptor's large form bent over one of her husband's tool chests, his large fingers gently fumbling with one of the hammers. He managed to pick one up but promptly dropped it only seconds later when the weight of it caught him off guard.

"What are you doing?" Danielle couldn't help but ask him after the small cloud of dust the hammer had kicked up settled.

Perceptor's answer was immediate. "Most of the damage inflicted on your home was caused by me. I wish to help, but it seems that my servos are too large to grasp your tools effectively."

She didn't quite know what to make of it—his desire to help her confused her. Ever since she first laid eyes on him she had acted like a skittish cat, and she had made it clear to him that she was still wary of him. But here he was, wanting to help.

A sigh of defeat escaped her as her shoulders slumped. "You can still help," she eventually told him. "I need someone to help me hold up whatever I'm going to board my windows up with. You'll be able to help me just fine." She made her way to the very back of the workshop and began to pull out one of the tarps. She dragged it all the way back to Perceptor where she handed it to him and went back for some two by fours. Once she had handed him several, she went back for a couple more tarps.

When he couldn't hold anymore, she lead him out of the workshop and over to the house, where they started with broken windows on the second floor. By the time they had managed to hammer a tarp over both of the two windows that had shattered, followed by three boards each, it was time for Jetta to go to bed, so they had to stop momentarily. Danielle disappeared inside for about fifteen minutes while she put Jetta to bed, and when she came back out, they went back to work. They worked as quiet as they were able, since Jetta had to sleep, but every hammer strike sounded like an explosion until they were finished.

All in all, by the time they were done, Danielle found it a bit easier to trust Perceptor.


	3. Blood and Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I've decided to update every day, lol. I'm finding it quite interesting that, while I reread each chapter, my writing is not as bad as I thought. Funny how I had such doubts about my writing while I was writing.
> 
> So remember, readers, if you think your writing is junk while you're writing, ignore that doubt, because more often than not, your writing is beautiful and awesome.
> 
> And as a note, I just wanted to point out that I wrote this story as having two 'main' points of view - Perceptor's POV, and Danielle's. As such, I used the appropriate nomenclature, though I probably broke a few writing rules in the process. haha.
> 
> Thank you for the kudos, comments, and bookmarks!

The first thing that greeted her the next morning was a sharp pain that radiated up her spine, protesting against the firm cushions of the couch Danielle had opted to take up residence on once Perceptor and her were finished securing the house.  She let out a light grunt as she managed to swing her legs off the couch and climb to her feet, nearly falling in the process.

Once she was up, she slipped her feet into her shoes and made her way over to the kitchen, where she went to work making breakfast. Soon she had some scrambled eggs sizzling on the stove and toast in the toaster. When the eggs got to the point that they were almost done, Danielle realized that Jetta had yet to come down for breakfast. The smell of breakfast usually woke her daughter up on the days when she could sleep in, but today the little girl slept on. So Danielle turned the stove down to low and walked to the bottom of the stairs, where she called, “Jetta, breakfast’s ready!”

She moved back to the kitchen in order to watch the eggs so they didn’t burn, but movement out the kitchen window—which was oddly one of the only windows that hadn’t shattered on that side of the house—caught her eye. Turning, she looked out the window in time to see Perceptor’s large form pause, before he crouched down and began to examine something on the ground by the porch. She watched as a look of total wonder came over the Transformer’s face, something that she couldn’t help but perceive as utterly remarkable. She never knew a Transformer could make such an amazed expression. All she had ever seen them express, when she had managed to catch a glimpse of one, was pain, sadness, or fear.

When the Autobots made themselves known to the public, Danielle never really got close to them since it had been rumoured that the Autobots were in Chicago, and she never had reason to go down to Chicago. She hadn’t left, or needed to leave, the province of Alberta for any reason at all for the last eight years.

A sharp scream jolted Danielle out of her thoughts and before she could even think, instinct sent her running to the bottom of the steps. Because of this, she missed how Perceptor’s head shot up and his eyes widened. 

Danielle slid to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and looked up. A loud gasp escaped her when she took in the sight of her daughter curled halfway up the stairs, grasping at her foot. As fat tears rolled down her cheeks and loud wails escaped her gaping mouth, dark red blood oozed from her heel, rapidly running down the stairs.

Jetta forgot to put her shoes on before she came downstairs. And Danielle had missed some of the glass.

Danielle didn’t waste anymore time. She leapt up the stairs and gathered her daughter up in her arms. Jetta wouldn’t let her try and take out the glass without inadvertently causing more damage. And she didn’t like how much blood was coming out of her heel. 

The woman barely paid enough mind to keep herself from slipping on her daughter’s blood as she charged down the stairs and into the kitchen where she switched off the stove and snatched up a clean tea-towel. She set her daughter down on a kitchen chair and gently bound her injured foot. From there, her daughter was back in her arms and they were out the door.

As Danielle nearly skipped all the front steps altogether, Perceptor watched with some concern. “Danyelle, what happened?”

The woman could barely divert enough of her attention away from getting her baby to the car in order to respond to the Autobot’s rather innocent question. “Jetta’s hurt. I have to get her to the hospital.”

Perceptor didn’t ask for clarification on just _how_ Jetta was hurt, instead he followed Danielle to the car and scanned the young human. His systems hiccuped at the readings he received and what his optics were telling him. The flimsy cloth tied around the girl’s pede was already soaked with what his scans told him was the human’s vital fluids, and the wound from which it was leaking from her was not showing any sign of being sealed by her self-repair systems. The reason was clear as day—there was a foreign object embedded in her pede, and it was forcibly keeping the wound open.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. According to his scans, if the bleeding wasn’t stopped, little Jetta would be close to death by the time they made it anywhere near someone who could help her. Jetta was already beginning to show weakness and the loss of the vital liquid.

Perceptor knew he had something that could help staunch the bleeding, but he had no idea if it worked on organics. He had only ever used it on his fellow Cybertronian.

The Autobot crouched down next to the car and stopped the distressed woman. “I have something that might help,” he told her.

“There’s no time!” Danielle told him, liquid running down her cheeks as she desperately tried to keep herself from succumbing to outright hysteria.

Perceptor hesitated for only a brief moment as Danielle strapped her daughter into the back seat. “How far away is the nearest medical center?”

Danielle slammed the door closed and gave him a glare of desperation. “ _Why_?”

“I have scanned your daughter, Danyelle,” he informed her as she wrenched open the driver’s-side door. “At the rate Jetta is losing fluid, she will be very near death by the time you get to a medical center, assuming the closest town has one.”

Danielle shook her head wildly. “Willaby Park doesn’t have a hospital. The closest one is in Chancellor, and that’s fifty kilometres away.”

By the time she was finished, the Autobot had managed to pull a medium-sized packet from his subspace—medium-sized to him, positively gigantic to Danielle—and quickly proceeded to open it. Danielle had to stop and found herself half-sitting, half-standing in her car as the slight metallic crinkling grabbed at her attention.

He pinched a small strip of the thin but strong mesh contained within the packet, and pulled it out, dropping the packet once it was free. He carefully transformed the tip of his right index finger into a pair of tiny scissors and used them to snip a small, Jetta-sized piece off. He then showed it to Danielle. “This is what medics use to stop the flow of energon from wounds we Cybertronians may receive,” he explained to the distraught woman. “It is comprised of highly-dense woven material and should adhere to the cut and keep any more fluids from escaping.”

“Will it work on humans?” she asked shakily.

Perceptor didn’t reply to that question—he wasn’t going to let her know that he was unsure. She didn’t need it. Instead, he reached down and carefully pulled the car door open, and once it was open he gently grasped the girl’s ankle and drew her injured foot out so he could get to it. Jetta let out a weak whimper, but let him proceed.

He carefully pressed the mesh to her skin around the glass. Training his scanners to the glass and the cut, he kept a careful optic on the blood flow as his large fingers pressed gently but firmly.He huffed a sigh of relief when his scanners told him that the mesh was beginning to do what he wanted it to do.

Perceptor quickly withdrew from the car and gave Danielle a nod. “I have stopped the bleeding—for now. I am not quite sure what the human fluids will do to the bandage, so you must get going now.”

Relief flashed across Danielle’s face for a second before it was replaced by confusion. He understood the meaning behind the expression. “I will be staying here. I do not transform into a vehicle, so I will not be able to follow. I will not be able to help monitor Jetta. You must go.”

Understanding seemed to flood through the woman’s body from the top of her head to her toes before she simply turned, leapt into her car, and slammed the door behind her. The engine roared to life shortly before it lurched forward and raced off down down the driveway. Perceptor watched it go and let out another sigh.

He didn’t know if he could bear it if another young one perished before him.

* * *

This planet’s host star set and then rose again before Danielle’s familiarly dusty car crept up the driveway and settled into it’s spot in front of the battered house again. Perceptor was going over his escape pod, dismantling it piece by piece, since it had served its purpose, when he heard the now-familiar sound of the gravel crunching under the vehicle’s tires.

He slowly turned from the now-empty shell of his pod and carefully stepped up to the hole in the wall of the workshop. He peered out the side of the hole, only using one optic to observe who had arrived, exposing half of his helm in the process. Lowering his targeting monocle, he zoomed his sight in on the vehicle. It only took him a second to confirm that the car was Danielle’s, and that there were two heat signatures inside it. Danielle and Jetta had returned.

Perceptor stepped out of the workshop, his spark urging him to see how Jetta had fared. He felt that Jetta’s injury was partially his fault, due to the fact that it was his violent landing next to hers and her mother’s home that caused there to be glass for her to step on.

The first to emerge from the car was Danielle. Perceptor paused and watched as the woman strode to the aft of the vehicle and popped open the trunk. She yanked something out before slamming the trunk closed, where she unfolded the strange-looking contraption, revealing a wheeled seat with handles. He eyed the two larger wheels located under the seat and the two smaller ones directly in front of them.

Danielle wheeled the weird chair around to one of the rear doors before popping the door open, revealing Jetta sitting inside. She reached in and gathered the girl into her arms, pivoting so she could lower her into the chair. Perceptor watched, curiosity growing as Jetta grasped the armrests and gave her mother a shaky smile.

When Jetta noticed him standing there, she gave him a smile as well. Perceptor returned it, though his smile was significantly smaller, and only just big enough for the girl to see. “It is good to see that you have returned in good health,” he said to the eight year old as Danielle closed the door and took hold of the handles of the chair.

She hesitated, and looked up at him. A watery half-smile stretched at her lips before she wheeled Jetta closer. The scientist retracted his targeting monocle as Danielle stopped by his toes. 

“Thank you for helping save my baby,” she told him as she craned her head back so she could look him in the optic. She dropped her gaze to her own toes momentarily before she reached over and patted the metal-plating on his shin. She sniffed and wiped away the tear that spilled down her cheek before she wheeled her daughter over to the front steps.

Perceptor watched as she struggled to get the wheeled chair up the stairs. She tried walking up the stairs backwards, pulling the chair and her daughter behind her, but when that failed she tried to lift it. But she was not strong enough, and she gave out a tired sigh when she gave up. “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he heard her say, “we’re going to have to try something else.”

Danielle dropped down onto one of the steps with another tired sigh. Running a shaky hand down her face, she fought to keep her eyes open. She had been awake all night, unable to get a wink of sleep until she knew her little girl was alright.

The ground shook with a steady beat that made her heart stall as Perceptor strode over to them. She lifted her gaze and looked up in question, only to watch as the metal titan reached down and gently grasped Jetta’s wheelchair. Danielle felt her eyes nearly leap from her head as Perceptor carefully lifted the chair up onto the front porch, her daughter giggling as he did so.

Danielle found herself jogging up the stairs after her, and was standing ready to grab the handles of the chair as the large, black, metal hand let go. When she saw that Perceptor had leaned back to check if everything was alright, she found herself thanking him again. He simply nodded with that tiny smile of his before he got back to his feet and disappeared into the workshop once more.

* * *

 

Later that afternoon, the front door squeaked open, drawing Perceptor’s attention out into the yard. The sound took his attention from a large avian with large, round optics that was roosting up in the rafters and focused it on the front door of the DeClan’s abode. He watched as Jetta limped out of the house, gingerly easing herself down the front steps until her bare foot and bandaged one touched the grass-covered ground. A hum escaped him as he watched her glance around, as if checking to see if there were any witnesses.

He turned from the hole and drifted over to what was left of his escape pod. The thickness of the metal sheets only distracted him for a moment before he found his attention returning to the young human and how she seemed to sneak from the home. If he remembered correctly, she was to stay off her feet…

His audios picked up on the sound of soft, little, organic pedes on the wood floor of the workshop, but he didn’t turn to face her right away. Instead, he turned his attention to a small pile of thin, flimsy stacks of fibrous material bound together, which was situated on a human-sized table nearby. He observed how the top-most one portrayed an image of an alt-form—a human vehicle. Next to the pile was a vehicle similar to the one in the image, an obvious model with metallic blue paint situated in a glass case.

His right servo gravitated over to the small glass case, but something abruptly fell off of a table behind him, and despite himself he found himself jerking back in surprise. He turned and looked down at Jetta, who stood frozen with her hand placed where a box, which now lay on its side on the floor, had been sitting on the table next to her. While trying to be stealthy, she had accidentally knocked it from its perch and revealed that she was there. 

Of course, he already knew she was there, so her effort had been for naught.

“Jetta,” he said. “I believe you should be in your home, and not on your…feet.”

The girl shrugged, before she wandered over to a chair and sat down on it. “I’m not on my feet.”

Perceptor’s nasal bridge wrinkled slightly at her defiant response, perturbed at her boldness. He didn’t chastise her, quickly coming to the conclusion that she would just ignore his words. There was something about her that told him that was how she would react. Instead, he found himself stating, in a wry tone, “Do you speak as such to your mother?”

Jetta grinned, but said nothing. After a moment, though, she shrugged. “Not really. But I wanted to come and see what you were doing. I haven’t really got to since I first met you.”

“I see.” He turned and attempted to redirect his attention to the remains of the escape pod. But his attention remained on the girl.

Jetta began to swing her legs back and forth. “What are you doing?”

“I am dismantling my escape pod,” he replied as he loosened a panel and pulled it free from the whole.

“You were…in _that_ when you came to Earth?”

He nodded in response and then reached in and pulled the console free. He set it off to the side, wondering if he would be able to repurpose it sometime in the future. “Indeed,” he stated. “It was… quite a harsh… ‘ride’.”

“Where are you going to put all that metal when you’re done?” came another question, the girl not missing a beat.

He paused for a moment. “There is no where inconspicuous to put it. I suppose I will keep it in here,” he replied. 

Jetta got up and wandered over to one of the smaller piles of metal, picking up one of the smaller splinters and proceeding to observe it intently. This caught his attention, and bodily turned him around. The girl didn’t seem to notice as he slowly crouched down and observed her, taking notice of how she ran her fingers and her hands over it, taking care to not touch or go near the sharp edges.

She hummed whenever her fingers ran across dust or dirt. “Space dust,” he heard her utter under her breath in astonishment at one point.

Perceptor tilted his helm slightly to the side. The girl had changed coverings since she had returned from the hospital, and now wore leggings and a purple shirt. The shirt was covered in stars, while the leggings displayed one continuous nebula.

Was this fashion statement Jetta’s way of showing others her interests? He had to admit that it was a strange sort of custom—one humans did not share with Cybertronians.

“Jetta…?” his voice caught her attention. Slowly, she turned and looked up from the metal. “Are you interested in… the stars?”

Her eyes visibly brightened at his question, and he could visibly see the gears begin to turn in her head. “Are you kidding?!” she exclaimed. “I _love_ stars! And space! I can’t get enough of it!” She bounced once in place as an epiphany came to her. “You’re from space! You know space!”

He nodded again and a humoured smile graced his faceplates. “Yes.”

Here was a young, eager mind. A scientist in her fledgeling stages. She wanted to know so much, but from the intensity of her interest, which was evident by the fire in her eyes and the way she held herself—of suppressed excitement screaming to be let out—he somehow knew that she had long ago exhausted every available source of information.

“I love space,” the girl went on to sigh. “Jupiter and Saturn are so enchanting, and Neptune too. And nebulas, and supernovas, but I can’t get enough books on it. _National Geographic_ has good magazines on space from time to time, but not all the time. And they cost so much! Seventeen dollars for a magazine? It’s crazy!”

The obvious monetary number that Jetta had spouted was lost on him, the topic of economy something he hadn’t picked up on when he scanned Danielle’s device. It had yet to be discussed by the girl’s mother, either, but by the way Jetta had reacted it was a steep price.

The sudden thought of passing the knowledge off to someone stilled him. It felt strange and came out of nowhere. After a few moments of thought, in which Jetta returned to looking at the metal in her hands, he concluded that he might be the only Autobot scientist on this planet. He may never get off this planet with his spark intact, and the knowledge he possessed would die with him. I wouldn’t hurt to pass it on to someone else. Jetta had an open and eager mind.

“How desperately do you wish to know about the galaxy outside this world you call home?”

Her head shot up, her eyes widening immensely. A happy grin appeared on her face and her face lit up with the brilliance of a star. “Very desperate! I want to _know_.”

There it was. He had found his apprentice. “Good. I will teach you then.”

* * *

The near-blinding light of the computer monitor was making his eyes feel like they were drying out. He let out a half-hearted groan as another column of empty data slowly scrolled up the screen.

The crinkling of a paper bag grated against his nerves, but offered him a reprieve when it forced him to pause the scrolling. He swivelled around on his chair and turned to face the source of the noise, and allowed a small chuckle when Epps clomped into the room with a fistful of McDonalds.

“Lennox, my man, anything new pop up while I was gone?” he asked.

The sandy-haired soldier sighed and ran a hand through his buzz-cut. “Nothing. Zip. _Nada_. It’s been quiet,” he replied.

“ _Too_ quiet,” Epps quipped with a wry grin as he set the bag down a nearby desk that he had claimed as his own. He opened it and fished out a Big Mac and some fries, which he handed to his friend before pulling out his own lunch. He dropped into the desk chair and didn’t waste any time before digging into his fast food.

Unlike his friend, Will wasn’t quick to dive into his burger and fries. Instead, he glanced back at his computer screen for a moment.

More than once he had caught himself doubting what they were doing. After all, it had separated them from their families, forcing them to refrain from contacting them lest their calls were tracked. All they did was move from town to town, monitoring feedback from old, forgotten NEST equipment and what their current allies had provided for them.

So far, they had the fortune of picking up a Cybertronian signal three times—twice the signal had slipped away before they could triangulate its exact location, and once it had turned out to belong to a Decepticon, who was promptly confronted by Cemetery Wind and offlined on the spot.

Was it _really_ worth it? They hadn’t been able to pick up on a Cybertronian signature in months, and Will was finding it harder and harder to resist from going down the easy path and give up, even though his military training was constantly screaming at him to ignore those doubts.

He shoved those doubts down and picked up his burger. But not long after he had taken his first bite, his computer began to wail, and he nearly wore his lunch on his front. He set the burger down on its wrapper and slammed his fingers down onto the keys of the keyboard. He pulled up window after window as Epps rolled his chair over and peered over his shoulder.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know,” Will replied with a tense sigh. “The computer just started going crazy.” After pulling up one last window, he slapped the desk with his palm. “According to this, several rural weather stations picked up an atmospheric disturbance originating over Southern Alberta, Canada. According to eyewitness reports, it was ‘what looked to be a meteor’ but no one knows if it burned up on its way down or if it did manage to make landfall.”

Epps leaned back in his chair and hummed. “Do you think…?”

Pulling up another window, Will jabbed excitedly at the screen with a finger. “There! An old NEST energon scanner picked up on faint traces of energon.” He was climbing out of his chair even though he had resumed typing, but then he was shutting down the screen of the laptop and slamming it closed. He picked it up and tucked it under his arm, and swooped up his lunch. “I got the co-ordinates,” he said as he strode to the door of the small motel room they had been holed up in. “We need to haul aft if we want to get to the Cybertronian before Cemetery Wind does. I don’t doubt that they have access to the same equipment we do. Not after they beat us to that Decepticon.”

They packed light, and Epps trailed behind him with a duffel bag in each hand.

“Not only do they have access to the same tech that we have,” Will said grimly as he helped Epps throw the duffels into the spacious back-seat of their plain white 2013 Chevy Silverado, “they have access to _everything_. Someone breathes wrong in a public place and they know about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnd, that's why Lennox and Epps are listed as characters for this story!


	4. Concerning You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys, sorry that this chapter ended up being posted later than usual. Today turned out to be a lot busier than I expected, coupled with the fact that this chapter was a lot longer than I thought it was, lol.
> 
> Thanks so much for the comments, kudos, and bookmarks! I hope you enjoy this chapter :D

Danielle wanted to rip her hair out.

Her skin crawled at the fact that her home was no longer safe for her baby girl, and that, with time racing towards the fateful hours were she would have to fill in for her friend in Sunday School, she was finding herself woefully unprepared to teach those young minds what she had been tasked to teach. She wanted to clean, but she had inherited her mother's perfectionistic qualities in that aspect, and she wasn't going to be able to stop now until she could eat food from the floor.

She needed to _clean_. She needed to prepare for Sunday School. And she somehow had to keep a better eye on her child.

Jetta had snuck out when she had been preoccupied, having only rested for less than an hour after she had brought her home from the hospital. Danielle hadn't noticed right away because she had been busy and she had heard the TV playing in the living room. It wasn't until an hour or so later that she realized that she was gone, and found her daughter in the workshop with Perceptor.

Danielle stood in the kitchen, staring at the thin pamphlet of instructor-curriculum that was sitting on the tiny table. On the edge of her awareness, she could hear Jetta giggling in the living room as she watched something on the TV, having been relocated there. With a defeated sigh, she moved over to the table and sat down, where she rifled through the pamphlet and tried to get the gist of that week's lesson.

Just when she thought she was getting the feeling that she understood what was being said, the walls of the house vibrated roughly, and the muffled sound of several plastic water bottles falling over in the cupboard reached her ears.

"Mummy?" Jetta called, worry heavy in her voice.

Once again, Danielle found herself sighing. Standing, she walked to the kitchen doorway and called, "Don't worry, honey, just keep watching TV. Mummy will go and check what that was." As she shrugged on a sweater, Danielle prayed that the sudden shaking of the house was caused by the sonic boom of a passing jet and not another robotic visitor. _Please not another Transformer, please not another Transformer,_ she mentally begged as she opened the front door and stepped outside.

She stopped on the porch and cast a wary gaze about. Her eyes landed on the hole in the workshop wall, and on the smoke billowing out of it. Before she knew it her feet were carrying her across the yard and over to the gaping hole in the wall, unwittingly carrying her straight into the thick, dark cloud. She accidentally inhaled a lungful of smoke, and ended up spending the next few minutes coughing until until she thought her lungs were going to try and climb up her esophagus. And so focused was she on trying to clear her airway of the smoke that she missed Perceptor's heavy footsteps as he stepped out of the smoke, his frame making a weird whining noise as if whatever cooling systems he had were choking on the smoke as well.

"Sorry I startled you," she heard him apologize as she finally managed to get her breathing under control. When she was sure she was no longer gaping like a fish out of water, she turned to look up at him with a questioning gaze. Seeing this, he dusted off his hands and hastened to explain with a sheepish grin peeking out from behind the layer of soot that now caked his face. "I was almost finished disassembling my escape pod when I came across its detonation module—a device that causes the pod to self destruct if you need to get rid of it. Thankfully, I had already drained all of the energon from its lines or we might have had a larger explosion."

Danielle bit her bottom lip and her heart did a little jump at how close they had been to a catastrophe. "How bad's the damage?"

Perceptor gently waved away her concern. "Not to worry, there was not much damage at all. The detonation module was a tiny thing, really, only big enough to ignite the energon in the escape pod and cause it to explode." He peered back into the workshop though the smoke was as thick as ever. "Just a smudge on the floor."

Danielle cocked an eyebrow at his light dismissal but let out a sigh of relief anyway. "Thank goodness." She allowed a chuckle, before admitting with a gentle under-toss of her hand, "I thought another Transformer fell from the sky."

* * *

That evening, when the sun had gone down and she had bedded Jetta down for the night, Danielle treated herself to a mug of Earl Grey tea and a chance to soak in some fresh air. She went out to onto the porch, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders.

She set herself down on the steps and allowed herself to simply gaze over the limited view due to the many trees planted around the property, taking long sips and enjoyed the warm drink in her hands.

After a few minutes, she caught sight of a familiar blue glow hovering high above the ground, amongst the trees. The light of Perceptor's eyes gave him away. Danielle found herself contemplating the Transformer's presence on her land.

 _He said he landed here by accident. He wouldn't have come here if he had any say in it, right?_ she mused. The thought answered the question why he was there, but it didn't stop the nagging worry that had resumed eating at her now that she had time to sit down and think. It was only a matter of time before the government found out his was there, if they hadn't already. The last thing she wanted was to see him hunted down like some sort of animal. But what could she do? She had no real power in the world, no influence, and no friends high up on the totem pole to help her out if she got herself in a bind. She couldn't help him.

But the last thing she would do would be and go and call that number she had seen circulating on the internet. He was her guest. To hand him over to the government would be like stabbing him while he slept. And she had seen what those _monsters_ who called themselves 'government agents' did to Transformers first hand.

Perceptor eventually seemed to take notice that she was there, his laser blue gaze turning to alight on her. Slowly, he began make his way over to where she sat, where he regarded her for a moment. His form was shrouded mostly by the nighttime darkness, but once he eased himself down into a sitting position nearby, the porch light allowed her to see that he had cleaned himself up since the last time she had seen him. She didn't know how, exactly, but if the small leaflets of frost that were clinging to the edges of his face and armour plates were any indication, she had to guess that he found the outside tap and made use of it.

"What have you been up to?" she asked in a pleasant tone, wanting to fill the nighttime air with conversation so that an awkward silence wouldn't be able to settle and make the atmosphere smothering.

Perceptor pulled out a magazine seemingly from out of nowhere and gently handed it to her. As she took it, she couldn't help but marvel at how small her hands and the magazine seemed compared to his own. That observation calmed her, bringing a hush to her world. It was enough to calm her and allow her to take in her strange guest properly. What she could see of him in the dark nearly took her breath away.

His armour was made of thousands of intricate pieces of red and black metal, arranging itself in such a way that it almost looked like he was wearing a lab coat. Though his arms were covered in red metal along with his shins and calves, his upper legs were black, his whole visage calling to mind a scientist in the field, wearing knee-high gum boots. His face looked oddly human, more human than any of the Transformers she had managed to see online due to the fact that his face didn't looked to be made of countless little pieces of metal—but looked to be actually covered in fine silver metal mesh stretched over a metal skull.

The magazine was one of her husband's old car magazines that he had collected over the years. Seeing the old green roadster on the cover of this issue brought back a wave of nostalgia and memories of nights when the power went out and all they could do was snuggle close and read the issues by candlelight.

With the memories came sorrow and Danielle found herself fighting to keep tears from welling up in her eyes. _Oh, John…_

"This belonged to my husband," she said. She gave the Autobot a watery smile. "Did you read this?"

"I briefly rifled through it," he replied. "There are stacks of those in the workshop."

Danielle bit her bottom lip. "I know. I've been meaning to pack those in some plastic containers, to save them." She took a sip from her tea and settled into an anxious silence. She wanted the subject to drop.

But after a few minutes, after they had both turned their attention up to the sky, Perceptor asked the dreaded question. "Danyelle… what happened to your husband?"

Her heart threw itself against her ribcage as it performed a spastic dance at the sound of his question. She hated that question. It dredged up too many volatile emotions from the depths of her soul. Everyone in Willaby Park knew what happened to her husband, so she wasn't asked anymore. But because of Perceptor's arrival, the anniversary of that horrible day and come and gone and she had barely had time to acknowledge it and help herself get over it again. She hadn't even been able to visit his grave.

_There had been a knock at the door. It came as an unpleasant interruption to their afternoon. Her arms were full with making supper—hand-breaded pork chops in mushroom soup sauce. It was her husband's favourite._

Slowly, with a shaky hand, she set her mug down on the step beside her. She clasped her hands together and rested them in her lap. When she took a deep breath, it did not go in smoothly, and made an audible hitching noise. "My husband…died," she managed to say before she had to try and swallow the enormous lump that suddenly appeared in her throat. "H-he was biking to work when he became a victim of a hit and run. The truck came out of nowhere and ran him right over. The driver didn't even stop."

For a moment, she had to stop. As she tried to reign in her emotions, Perceptor brought his gaze down from the heavens, and he looked down at her. He didn't say anything, and silently prompted her to continue on.

_She answered the door with a silent huff. Her daughter was asking who was at the door even before she could find it out for herself. She stopped when she saw that it was Sheriff Woodstock standing on her porch. It only took her a second before she knew why he had come._

Taking another deep breath, she forged ahead, wanting to get this over with so she didn't have to dread it coming up again. "My husband…he wasn't found right away after he was hit. According to the doctors at the hospital, he hit his head pretty hard, but he was conscious after the fact." She couldn't bring herself to call it an "accident". It was too brutal to be simply an accident. Looking up at Perceptor, she managed to lock eyes with him. "He was so _broken_ when they found him. He was awake after he was hit, but he couldn't _move_. And even if he could, he wouldn't have been able to call for help. His cell phone had been smashed on impact." Her voice had tapered down to a whisper, and tears were running down her cheeks like rivers.

She looked down and felt rather than saw when Perceptor gently cupped her with one of his large hands. This prompted her to blurt out one last thing before she turned and buried her face in the crook between his thumb and the rest of his hand. "He died alone! I should have been there!"

The Autobot gently wrapped his fingers around her and let her cry on what had to be the closest thing to a shoulder he could provide. Danielle appreciated this, for this was really the first time she had been able to convey some of her emotions towards the death of her husband to someone outside of her family. She had managed to keep it bottled up and locked away from those she knew in town, and she couldn't hold it in anymore.

After a while, she managed to cry herself out, and she sat up. She took a moment to wipe the tears out of her eyes and off her cheeks before she managed a weak chuckle. "S-sorry about that," she managed to croak out. "I usually don't cry in front of others."

Perceptor didn't say anything, instead, he gently ran the pad of one of his fingers across the top of her head and returned to stargazing. With a thankful smile, Danielle looked back up into the sky as well, and allowed herself to enjoy the view for several moments. The silence was comfortable, but like usual it wasn't meant to last.

The loud sound of a car gunning its engine up the road startled her enough that she practically leapt out of her skin with a horrified gasp. With adrenaline rushing through her veins, she desperately raked the darkness with her eyes, searching for any sign of danger. _They couldn't have found out already, could they?_ she asked herself, desperately searching for any sliver of hope. But that was quickly dashed when her common sense replied, _Yes, they could. They have eyes and ears everywhere._

It wasn't until the sound of the car's engine had long since faded off into the distance that she started to calm down, but even then, memories of the last time she had heard a roaring engine and seen an Autobot at the same time, she had watched it die.

Her heart continued to race until she felt a heavy weight settle on her shoulders—physically, not metaphorically. A quick glance told her that Perceptor had settled his index finger and thumb on her shoulders like one would wrap their arm around them.

Slowly, she looked up until their gazes met again, and as soon as she found herself looking into his eyes, a feeling of urgency overwhelmed her until it felt like her neck was being squeezed. And it was then that she realized that she had something else she had to tell her guest. Something important. She had been just thinking about it before she told Perceptor about her husband, and as much as she didn't want to have to discuss such a horrible subject, she knew she had to do it or this sensation would emotionally suffocate her.

For a moment, she allowed herself to imagine herself springing up and off the diving board at the swimming pool in Chancellor. And with a deep breath, she took the plunge. "Perceptor, there's one more thing I have to tell you," she said in the strongest voice she could muster, which was surprisingly strong despite the fact that she currently couldn't swallow.

The Autobot shifted slightly, turning to face her a bit more. "Was there something you forgot to tell me about your husband?"

Danielle managed to firmly shake her head. "No. This is something concerning you, Perceptor."

The giant set his hand down on the porch-step behind her, and she took advantage of that. She stood and paced a few steps away before she turned to face him again. Her voice was shaky when she spoke again. "I haven't told you something I should have," she admitted as she began to wring her hands. "Unfortunately, w-we _have_ been quite busy since we met, but—" she paused and swallowed thickly. "To put it simply: Perceptor, you're in danger. And the threat isn't coming from the Decepticons—because there are none. At least, none that I know of."

She paused again, and allowed that to sink in. She watched as the corners of his mouth curled downward, and took it as the cue to continue. "In short, the governments of the Earth don't like Autobots and Decepticons. At all." She wrapped her hands around her tightly as she surged on. "A few years ago, there was a major battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons in a city called Chicago—the Decepticons managed to take over the city after the governments of the world agreed to send the Autobots off-world. The Decepticons tricked the governments into thinking they meant us no harm. They took over Chicago, they practically razed it to the ground, and the Autobots were forced to fight them and endanger even more lives in the process."

The ran her hands up and down her upper arms as the chill set in. "They won, of course, but were the Autobots hailed as heroes? No. Instead, they're being hunted down. Like animals. I've witnessed it in action."

Danielle watched as Perceptor stood, his face going slack as a far-off look developed in his eyes. She didn't say anything more as he seemed to seriously mull over what she had said. His voice was nothing more than a whisper when he finally spoke, and Danielle felt herself stiffen in response. "If these… hunters you've mentioned, can roam as they please as your tone implies… then I've put you and your… your daughter at risk." He turned to face her again. "I'm so terribly sorry."

The woman shifted her stance slightly. "It's not your fault, Perceptor. You had no control over where you landed."

"But what are we going to do? And how do you know these things? You say you have witnessed what your people have done to mine…?"

Though her expression didn't change at his question, other than a frown, her eyes darkened and grew eerily clear as her mind was sucked back to one particularly dark day.

* * *

**_2013_ **

The interior of the car was silent, the sound of the engine acting as blank background static. It made the trip home from Calgary seem to stretch on, her car's tires eating up mile after mile with no end in sight. All she wanted was to get home to her baby, who she had to leave with Mary.

She couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Jetta under Mary's care. At age seven, Jetta had never fully grown out her "why?" stage, and was probably barraging poor Mary with endless questions, half of which she probably couldn't answer. How many clumps of hair would be lying on the kitchen floor when picked she picked up her daughter?

Her mirth quickly faded when the call of nature suddenly overcame her. She quickly pulled over onto the side of the highway and parked. She grabbed a roll of toilet paper from under the front seat and opened the driver's door before making a bee-line for the bush, barely stopping to shut the door behind her.

She only went far enough into the bush that she knew she had privacy without losing sight of her car. She gripped the toilet paper tightly in her hand as she sought out a decent place to do her thing. She didn't want to get lost, she couldn't afford to do so. She needed to get home and relieve Mary of the intellectual burden that was Jetta Selah DeClan.

A sigh of frustration escaped her when she turned and spotted a dirt road only a few feet away, meaning that only dozen or so meters of forest separated the highway from the dirt road and thus gave her what felt like sparse cover. A wary glance about told her that she would have to walk for a while before she could find any deeper cover, with no guarantee that she would still be able to see her car, but she wasn't sure she could do that.

Another sigh escaped her as the realization of what she had to do descended on her. Quickly, she moved over to the spot she felt safest, and did the deed.

As she was refastening her belt, the sound of tires crunching on gravel reached her ears, and she let out a breath of relief. _That was close,_ she thought as she pulled the bottom hem of her purple shirt down. She hated close calls, but she wasn't going to dismiss the relief that had washed over her.

Danielle waited to see who was driving down the dirt road out of mere curiosity. She crouched down and hid herself behind a thick cluster of Wild Roses, a small chuckle of anticipation escaping her as she held herself very still.

Moments later, a modest tan car of a make and model she wasn't familiar with came racing up the road, going faster than what she thought was safe on gravel. There was a sharp whistle, and the road to the vehicle's right exploded with a sharp _bang!_

Danielle jumped, unable to quite believe what she was witnessing. Something glanced off of the left-hand side of the car's bumper, and there was another explosion. A shriek pierced the air as the shockwave from the explosion shook the trees and made the ground under her tremble.

The car then did something that astonished her. Her breath disappeared from her lungs as the car split apart and rearranged itself until a lithe form was sent crashing down the road. It quickly slid to a stop, revealing itself to be bipedal and feminine in shape. Glowing blue eyes flashed wide in… panic?

The tall, feminine robot held up her hands imploringly as she climbed to her feet. "What are you doing?!" she exclaimed, her voice pleasantly mellow despite its strained undertones. "I'm an Autobot! We're allies!"

Confusion flooded Danielle as the scene progressed. She had heard of the Autobots, there wasn't anyone alive who hadn't nowadays. But last she heard, the Autobots were still allies with the governments—so why was she being attacked? Danielle observed the humans who had shot at the Autobot, and were just now climbing out of their ominously black SUVs and all-terrain muscle cars.

There was some shouting from one of the humans, but he was too far away for her to hear the words clearly. But what ever it was must have been devastating, for a look of terror bloomed on the Autobot's face, and it sent a jolt through Danielle's chest.

Her hand shot down to her pocket, where she yanked out her phone and flipped open the camera app. She accessed the recording function and began taking video of the developing situation. She didn't know what she was doing and why she was doing it, but she was doing it and she wasn't going to stop.

It wasn't like she could make herself stop, anyway. She couldn't make herself move, she had frozen up to the point that it felt like every bone in her body would shatter if she tried to move.

"It wasn't _our_ fault!" the Autobot protested. "It was because of the Decepticons that Chicago was destroyed. Your governments listened to their false promises, and left yourselves open to attack. _We saved_ —" she was cut off mid-rant.

Her abdomen exploded, sending pieces of her living metal flying everywhere. A hideous, bloodcurdling shriek tore free from her as her knees buckled and she fell to the ground. Danielle's eyes widened, and she hastily reached up and clamped down on her neck in order to keep herself from screaming. Her hand knocked against the one holding up her phone, and she dropped it. Quickly, she snatched it up again and held it up towards the situation.

She risked capturing a few more seconds of footage, before she managed to get up. She raced back to the car, praying to God that she wouldn't be spotted. She bit the insides of her cheeks as tears began to pour down them.

She just witnessed a murder. The Autobots were the good guys and she just watched a bunch of humans murder one. At any moment she could be discovered, and she might just be murdered as well in order to guarantee her silence. _Oh, God,_ she prayed, _please keep me safe. Deliver me from this evil!_

As she reached her car, the Autobot's words echoed in her ears. _'It was because of the Decepticons'_ , _'We saved—'_

 _We saved you_.

She threw herself into the driver's seat and jammed the key into the ignition. She didn't bother strapping herself in, and didn't close the door until she was racing down the highway and almost a kilometre away from the scene of the crime. It was only then that she slammed the driver's door shut and risked driving with one hand on the steering wheel in order to put her seatbelt on.

_We saved you. We saved you._

The Autobots saved the Earth, and instead of receiving thanks, they received death.

* * *

The truck seemed to sigh as they pulled up to the truck stop and got out. Lennox didn't waste any time and got out, striding off to go get a few of those chicken buddy burgers at the A&W standing on the edge of the stop. Epps stayed by the truck, where he cast a gaze about, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious while they were stationary. They wouldn't have stopped, but they had left without anything to eat and it was well past supper time.

The radio inside the cab of the truck let out a brief crackle before he began to quietly blast "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. Epps grunted and banged against the door, affectively shutting up the inappropriate tune.

The glass front door of the fast food joint rattled slightly as Lennox pulled it open and entered. As soon as his sneaker-clad feet touched the tiles he was slammed with the smell of fast food. It had been a while since he had been in an A&W, but the smell hadn't changed one iota.

The line stretching out from the counter was moderate, so he parked himself at the end of it without complaint. As he waited for his turn, he took a cursory glance around the restaurant, until his eyes landed on a little girl who was waiting at one of the booths nearby. She was fiddling with something in her hands.

He couldn't help but think of his own little girl as he watched the girl play with a bliss and innocence he missed from the days before his family was forced into hiding. He pulled out his wallet and flipped it open so he could look at the picture of his wife and daughter he had tucked inside. They were both smiling at the camera while they sat on a picnic blanket in the front yard of the small property they used to live on. If he remembered correctly, it was one of the last times they had had a picnic before he was forced to relocate them for safety.

As he turned his attention away from the wallet, he noticed that his turn was coming up, so he readied himself to order, making sure he had cash in his wallet so he didn't risk being tracked through his credit card. When his turn came, he ordered four buddy burgers and left when the employee handed him the paper bag.

Before he left, he gazed over at the little girl again, taking note that she seemed to be playing with the contents of a Kinder Egg, before he strode outside and made his way back over to the truck.

"Did you know, _we_ can't have Kinder Eggs because the Health and Safety Board considers the toys to be a choking hazard?" he spouted out randomly when they climbed back into the truck.

"What brought up _that_ up?" Epps asked as he took the burgers from him.

Lennox allowed a tiny smile, no more than the up-turning of the corner of his mouth. "There was a little girl with one in one of the booths inside. Made me think of Annabelle."

Epps shook his head with a sigh. "Don't worry, man, you'll get to see her again."

The corners of Lennox's mouth drooped at that. "I sure hope so," he couldn't help but whisper.

The engine of the truck roared as they raced along, and conversation eventually died out as they settled into uneasy silence. It wasn't until they had traveled down the correct exit that Lennox asked a question. "How many more miles to the source of the signal?"

Epps opened up a map app on his phone and stared at line marking out the route. "According to this, we only have to drive fifty more miles until we reach the arrow on the map. We're almost there."

Lennox sighed and gripped the steering wheel tightly. The stress-levels within the cab went up several notches right then and there as they made their way closer to the energon signal, and what ultimately could be their last stand.


	5. Evestigatus : Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This would have to be one of my favourite chapters of this story, and it just so happens to surpass the last chapter as the longest one of this story! I honestly don't know how I managed to proof-read this, since today was supposed to be extremely busy - I'm helping to set up our property so I can have my horse (Star) here.
> 
> I'm not complaining though :)
> 
> Thanks so much for the comments, bookmarks, and kudos! I hope you enjoy this chapter, because I think the heat is about to be turned way up! (wow, did that sound cheesy, or what? LOL)

The next morning, Danielle appeared in the workshop carrying a stack of books in her arms. A small grunt escaped her as she made her way over to one of her husband's workbenches, where she dropped the books with a dull _slap_. Perceptor looked up from where he was sitting up against the far wall, where he found himself that morning after he allowed himself a short recharge, and eyed the stack of books.

The Autobot made note that Danielle wasn't wearing the usual coverings he had seen her in, and had put on ones that seemed more refined. He then looked down at the stack of books she had put down. "Literature?"

Danielle nodded. "I figured that, since you have taken to reading my husband's magazines, you might like to have some variety to what you can read." She began to scatter the books around the table as she read the titles out to him. "I've brought _The Dancing Master_ by Julie Klassen, _The Hobbit_ by J.R.R. Tolkien, a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica, a book about British Columbia, another about Nova Scotia, annnd… _101 Carpentry Projects for the Homestead_. Hopefully you will find something interesting out of all this." She turned from the table and looked up at him. "Jetta and I will be gone until noon—which is when the sun is directly overhead."

Perceptor slowly climbed to his feet so he could draw closer to the table. "Where are you going?" he asked as he began to look over the book about British Columbia, seeming to take a keen interest in the pages describing the flora native to the temperate rain forest.

"It's Sunday morning worship service at our church this morning," Danielle replied as she made her way over to the door leading out to the cement pad that stretched out from the front of the workshop. She didn't want to risk getting her clothes dirty since he had agonized over the outfit the night before. She wanted to look nice when she had to teach Sunday School. "I would invite you to come," she said as she paused at the door, "but I believe you told me that you don't turn into a car. So… I guess you'll have to stay here."

Perceptor gave her a distracted nod, having become fully immersed in the book he had chosen to read.

Danielle allowed a small chuckle but that quickly died in her throat when she remembered what she had told him the night before. She felt compelled to apologize to him again.

"Perceptor?" she managed to pipe up before her voice could die in her throat. Perceptor seemed to pick up on the hidden meaning of the tone of her voice, and peered up from the book, lowering it just enough that all she could see were his eyes over the top edge, which was a feat in itself since it was so small compared to him. "I'm sorry."

Confusion glimmered in his eyes for a moment. "What for?" he asked as the book was pulled down from his face.

Danielle crossed her arms and huffed. "For upsetting you last night, for telling you that the majority of my species has basically been brainwashed into hating your…people."

Perceptor turned his full attention on her and she found herself rooted to the spot from the intensity of his gaze. "In the short time I have known you, Danyelle, I can see that you must be vastly different from the average member of your race. You have been nothing but kind—do not apologize for something you have no control over."

His words brought a warm fuzzy feeling to her chest, and she felt the guilt run off her shoulders like water, though it didn't dissipate completely. She smiled gratefully at his words.

As she drove her daughter and herself to church, she couldn't help the little smile that stuck to her lips like glue, and though, when she sat down in a pew near the back of the sanctuary when they reached the church, she couldn't keep the feeling of impending doom—that something was about to go down—away, she felt herself relax. It was all up to God now, it was in His hands. She wasn't going to fight it.

But just to help ease her worries just a tiny bit more, she raised her hand when Pastor Sam asked if anyone had any prayer requests about thirty minutes into the service.

"I have a friend," she started, "who has found himself in hot water. Not hot water as in being in trouble with his friends or his family or his boss. No, he's made someone really upset and he doesn't know what to do about it. This someone is not the nicest person, and he might hurt my friend. So, could you please pray for him?"

* * *

When she sank into the driver's seat, Danielle let out a sigh of relief. That whole ordeal was over and she wasn't going to have to worry about subbing for someone ever again—hopefully. The kids had been darlings, but their blank stares had gotten under her skin. She liked kids, but it wasn't until that morning that she discovered that she liked to work with only one kid at a time. That one kid being Jetta, of course.

It wasn't long before she had pulled the car out of the church parking lot and was making her way up main street. Another sigh escaped her as the prospect of being able to sink down onto the couch when she got home beckoned to her. She liked going to church, but she had been taught growing up to dress nicely for going to service, and she couldn't wait to get out of the blouse and skirt that was quickly beginning to feel constricting and into a loose t-shirt and jeans.

As she drove up main street, she noticed the foreign truck sitting off to the left. It was parked out front of the tiny motel attached to the diner where she worked. She took note of its white paint job before she focused back on the road. Everyone knew everyone else in Willaby Park, and everyone knew whose vehicle belonged to who, so that truck stuck out like a sore thumb. No one in Willaby Park could afford to own a truck that new.

Alarm bells went off in her head, and she wondered about who owned that truck. _Could it belong to the ones after the Transformers?_ The choice of a white vehicle seemed odd to her, since unmarked vehicles were usually black.

Once she was on the highway leading to home, she risked driving a little faster than the posted speed limit so she could make it home and assure herself that everything was alright and that they hadn't been found out.

But due to her rising apprehension, the trip seemed to take twice as long, so when they finally parked in front of the house with no danger in sight, she found herself heaving another sigh of relief. After getting inside and changing into more comfortable clothes, she threw herself down on the couch and let a heavy shudder run through her as she tried to shake off the anxiety drowning her.

Jetta, who had changed as well, came over and gave her a hug. Danielle appreciated it immensely. She really needed a hug.

Danielle managed to push herself up into a sitting position after a while, and attempted to relax as her daughter put a DVD in their ancient DVD player. She tried to drown out the world as her daughter sang along with Barbie, but it soon became apparent that the white truck was going to continue to weigh on her mind.

Thankfully, by the end of the establishing quarter of the movie, Danielle had managed to calm herself enough that she was able to breathe normally again. But the feeling that something was about to happen, that she was being warned that things were about to change, never left her and the feeling only continued to grow stronger.

Outside, Perceptor was standing beside one of the pine trees bordering the yard and was staring at the needles sticking out of the branches in utmost fascination. Never, in all his time in space or hopping from planet to planet, had he had come across such an organic specimen. He crouched down and scooped up a servo-full of dirt and pine needles, and, after straightening again, spent the next minute and a half examining the pine needles.

"Fascinating!" he whispered as he cataloged the differences in the needles here to the ones he had seen in one of the books Danielle had given him to read. The things he had learned that morning while Danielle and Jetta had been off at church made him almost wish he hadn't waited so long to take in this new world and what was all around him.

He was distracted from the pine needles when a quiet ' _mewl_ ' reached his audios, prompting him to look down. He was surprised to see a small creature covered in bright orange fur sitting a few feet from his pedes, staring up at him with impassive amber eyes.

Slowly, and ever so gently, Perceptor lowered himself down, until he was sitting on both knee-joints. The cat didn't move, and from this close proximity Perceptor realized that he had seen this creature before, when he had scanned the landscape surrounding the DeClan property. It lived on a farm separated from the DeClan's by a seemingly endless field.

Carefully, the mech extended an index finger and gently touched it to the top of its head. It purred loudly at the contact, and began to rub itself on his fingertip. Perceptor's spark glowed in amazement at this, his processor racing back to the memories of the cyber-cats he had seen back on Cybertron. He had never bothered to get one, since he had always been too busy in the lab.

 _The humans have cyber-cats? Fascinating…_ the war had practically wiped out the species, and Perceptor felt that any attempts to artificially replenish the genome would end in disaster if it were ever attempted.

"Who are you, little one?" he whispered as it practically threw itself at his servo. He watched as it moved on to his knee, where it continued to rub itself on him. When it turned and faced him at the right angle, he quickly zoomed in on the name tag hanging from its collar. "'Mr. Muffins', hmm…?"

The moment was shattered when the crunching of gravel under tires drowned out Mr. Muffins' purring. Mr. Muffins took one look off in the direction that the sound was coming from before quickly scampering off into the field towards home. Perceptor's spark jumped to the base of his neck cables when he realized that he needed to hide, and that there was a 90% chance that he was about to be discovered by the very people Danielle had warned him about. He knew it wasn't the sound of Danielle's vehicle leaving, since, when he looked up and over at his host's house, her vehicle was sitting out front and was switched off.

He immediately straightened and rushed over to the workshop, sticking to the cover of the trees. He ducked behind it, having a feeling that the intruders would look inside the workshop first and that he would need to stay on his toes if he were going to be able to outsmart them.

After he situated himself behind the workshop, he turned and trained his scanners through the wooden structure, hoping he would be able to keep an optic on the intruders. He then withdrew his sniper rifle from his subspace so he wouldn't have to worry about making a sound if they drew close.

For a moment, he stared at the gun as displeasure stirred in his spark. He never liked the thing—the very thought of shooting another Cybertronian appalled him. He only had it because he was a crack shot with it and because he needed something to protect himself with. He might have been a pacifistic scientist, but war wasn't easy or fair on any mech.

He just hoped that he wouldn't have to use it. Maybe the intruders were just visitors coming to check up on Danielle and Jetta?

* * *

Lennox let out a sigh laden with a fatigue that only came with endless hours of driving as he turned the truck up the long driveway. The laptop in Epps' lap was flashing notifications at such a rate that Epps was lucky he didn't have a problem with seizures.

"If I'm reading these right, the Cybertronian landed somewhere at the end of this driveway," he said as he closed the laptop and tucked it in the backseat so he could switch to using a handheld scanner.

Will let out a whistle. "I hope there wasn't a house at the end of this driveway," he remarked as they came around a bend. The property opened up from there, and the small clumps of trees seemed to part to reveal a spacious parcel of land occupied by a decent house and a large workshop. The blond soldier did a double take when he took notice of the gaping hole in the side of the workshop at the end of the driveway, and when he looked closer at the house, most of the windows he could see had been boarded up.

"It looks like a bomb went off here," Epps couldn't help but comment as the scanner in his hand pointed off towards the workshop.

"Cybertronians are like that," Will quipped with a wry smile before he pulled the truck up behind the sedan parked at the front of the house. He left it parked at an angle perpendicular to the car and popped open the driver's side door.

Epps quickly followed suit and jumped out his side of the truck as the scanner in his hand began to beep insistently. "Should we knock? You know that there's only a 30% chance or something that the landowners _don't_ know they've got a Cybertronian camping out next to their house, right?"

"Knocking's polite, Epps," Will replied with a chuckle.

Epps could only shrug in defeat. "Whatever, then, man. If they go all ninja on you because they've somehow made friends with the Cybertronian, don't ask me to help you fend them off."

Will gave him a look.

"Just sayin', man."

Lennox stepped up to the door and knocked.

* * *

Danielle had managed to fall into a light doze as her daughter practically sat on her legs as she watched TV. Since she returned to lying on the couch, she was taking up most of the space, but that didn't excuse the fact that she was starting to lose feeling in her legs.

But before she could rouse herself enough to chastise her daughter, a smart _rat-a-tat-tat_ sounded from the front door. The sound effectively jostled her awake with a gasp of surprise, and Jetta suddenly found herself scrambling to get off her mother as Danielle practically kicked her off and lunged to her feet. She was at the front door faster than you could say "hurry", adjusting her hair only slightly so she looked presentable as she went.

The person at the door was just beginning to knock again when she yanked the door open. "Sorry, you caught me by su—" the rest of the apology died on her lips when she noticed just who was at her door, and she couldn't help the tiny gasp that escaped her.

At the door stood a man she didn't recognize. He was tall, around six foot one, with tawny hair and clear brown eyes. His face was chiselled and covered with a day-old stubble. He had a fairly impressive build that immediately intimidated her. _Is he with the government? Is he here to take Perceptor away?!_ was what immediately popped into her head. _Oh please, God, don't let it be true,_ she prayed.

Thankfully, she managed to reign in her composure. "Can I help you?" she asked in what she hoped was a pleasant tone.

The man smiled. "Good afternoon, my name's Will Lennox. We came to see if you were alright—heard there was a meteor strike in the vicinity of your property the other night."

Danielle found herself having to lock her joints in order to keep herself from taking a step back in surprise. Then she forced herself to feign surprise with a hint of what she hoped conveyed 'oh, I remember what you're getting at' on her face. "Right, I remember hearing what sounded like a sonic-boom."

There was something off with the way he was smiling, and the more she looked at him the more her skin prickled with nervous sweat. Mental alarms screamed at the back of her mind, and she had to force herself to take deep breath. She figured that, if someone wanted to come or someone was sent to look for a meteor, they wouldn't look as nearly well built as this Will Lennox did. Sure, they might have muscle, but the muscles on this man's arms told of a lifestyle where he needed them.

"Do you mind if we took a look around? If the asteroid managed to arrive on the ground in one piece, it could turn out to be a significant scientific discovery. You know, life on other worlds? Wouldn't it be interesting if we found microbes on this space-rock?" he rambled, his charming smile never leaving his face.

Lennox's rambling sent Danielle's heart racing away. She saw right through his words—he wasn't here for a meteor. At first she had been confused as to why he and whoever he had come with were here looking for a meteor, but then she remembered that she and her daughter were the only ones who knew that there was no meteor. The way Lennox was pressing the fact hinted that he was fishing for something. He wouldn't be fishing if he was simply looking for a meteor. He knew there was something up.

Danielle sucked in another breath, feeling as if someone had just punched her in the chest. This was the moment where her life, her _daughter's_ life, could change forever. She couldn't let them look around. There were not enough places for Perceptor to hide, and he said he didn't transform into a vehicle, so it wasn't like he could even hide in plain sight. They would find him.

"No," she said as he began to open his mouth again. This halted him in his tracks and offered her a chance to press onward. "No, I'm not giving you permission to wander around the property and snoop around in our things." She met his steely gaze with her own, and dared him to press the issue, even though she knew that she had just given away the fact that she was hiding something. She had seen it before, on TV. Whenever someone didn't let the main person on the TV show go and scope out their property, you instantly had to wonder if they were hiding something.

A sudden shout, originating from somewhere over near the workshop, drew everything to a halt, freezing the both of them in place. " _Lennox_!"

* * *

Perceptor loosened his joints with an almost imperceptible _hiss_ as he readied himself. He shifted his stance, his scanners never leaving the situation building in front of the DeClan's housing-unit.

Two humans, different in stature and build than Danielle and Jetta, climbed out of the vehicle that had pulled up. One walked over to the house and climbed the front steps, while the other only followed the first a short distance before drifting closer to the workshop. Perceptor narrowed his optics at this even as he continued to watch with his scanning equipment.

After a moment, Danielle registered on his scans, having answered the front door, and began to speak with the first human. The second human stood where he was for a few moments, but then began to draw closer to the workshop even as Danielle's wary words drifted faintly on the light breeze. His fingers tightened on the grip of his gun even as he bent his knees a little and prepared for the inevitable confrontation.

As the second human finally drew close enough to peer into the workshop, Perceptor gently turned around so that his back faced the wall. His pedes hardly shook the ground, and his armour only made minute scraping sounds, but even then he didn't feel as if he was moving quietly enough. He shut down his cooling system and held himself absolutely still.

With scanners still trained on the human, he watched as it meandered into the workshop and spent a good long while peering around inside it. It then made its way back outside and began to skirt around the perimeter of the wooden building. Perceptor didn't dare to move, because he knew that if he tried to keep the building between him and the human, he would just end up revealing himself to the other human.

But he had to _hide_. Turning his attention away from the human, he looked up and scanned around for another form of cover. To his dismay, there was nothing. The trees ringing the property were not thick enough to hide him from the human and his armour would stick out amongst the green of the pines.

Just as he decided that the only option he had was to keep the building between him and the human no matter what, said human rounded the corner and froze when its eyes landed on him. It blinked before taking a step back and opening its mouth wide.

Perceptor instantly knew what it was going to do, so he bellowed, "No you don't!" He sprung forward, and brought his free servo down on the human in an attempt to keep it from speaking. But as soon as he sprang, a name exploded from the human's mouth and it rolled out of the way.

He landed heavily where the human was only a second before, and it occurred to him as he scrambled back to his pedes that he had just blown his cover altogether. He jerked his helm up and looked over towards the house, where the first human and Danielle were staring in his direction with wide eyes. It only took him a second to take that all in, before he was rushing forward on servos and knees, desperately trying to grab the second human with his free servo before he could get to some sort of communications device.

After slamming his servo uselessly into the dirt in several failed attempts to catch the human, he did the only thing he could think to do left in the heat of the moment. He threw himself down on his front and whipped his sniper rifle around.

Peering through the rifle's scope, he trained it on the retreating human and growled, " _Stop, or I will shoot_."

* * *

It felt like her heart had stopped and turned to ice when Perceptor spoke, his voice replaced by an arctic wind that rode at absolute zero. She gaped at the iron giant she had been housing for the last couple of days, hardly able to comprehend that the gentle mech she had started to consider her friend was capable of sounding so threatening.

But what she found hardest to believe was the fact that he was pointing a giant _gun_ at one of the men who had appeared on her doorstep. She hadn't even known he _had_ a gun. Sure, he had been fighting in a war, but he had been so calm—the very prospect of him having a gun hadn't even crossed her mind.

A part of her screamed at the fact that he was pointing a gun at another human, and she found her feet propelling her forward before she could even think.

"No!" Lennox barked before she felt his arms wrap around her. He absorbed her momentum and she was yanked to a halt.

"Perceptor!" she shrieked.

The sound of little feet wearing slippers slapped into the entryway behind her. "Mummy?"

Lennox's shoulder jerked against her as their heads snapped around to focus on her daughter. Lennox swore, and the second man stared in through the front door with wide eyes.

Danielle managed to wrench herself from Lennox's arms and rushed over to her daughter, where she wrapped an arm around her and pressed her face into her into her abdomen in order to keep her from taking in the full extent of the situation that was going on outside. Jetta had grown quite close with Perceptor, and the last thing she needed was for her daughter's pristine view of her new friend to be tarnished by the fact that he was now threatening a man with a gun, no matter if that man was one of the two who had come to try and take him away.

Once she knew her daughter's innocence had been preserved for the time being, she levelled a glare on Lennox. "Don't you _ever_ touch me like that again," she hissed. "And—" she continued as the tawny-haired man opened his mouth "—get off my property. I know why you've come, and I'm not going to let you take him away."

* * *

Lennox tensed at the woman's bold words. He understood where she was coming from, but the fact that the Autobot, the one she had named as "Perceptor", was pointing a gun at his best friend made the situation worse than it should have been.

He had never seen anything quite like it in all the years he had served with the Autobots. The mech was around 20 feet tall, but didn't possess any wings or wheels that alluded to what his alt-mode could have possibly been. Covered in red and black armour, he had lunged out from behind the workshop with all the appearances of wanting to kill Epps. And then he showed he had a gun.

Over behind the sedan, the truck rolled forward an inch.

Slowly, Lennox raised his hands, hoping to convey that he meant the mech no harm. He then turned from the woman and her daughter and slowly made his way down the porch steps before making his way over to Epps. He stared into the rifle's barrel, taking in the glowing blue lines that swirled off into its depths before he slowly looked up and locked gazes with the weapon's wielder.

"We mean you no harm," he said in a flat tone, not giving any of the emotions that were somersaulting in his chest away. _If this goes south, I may never see Sara and Annie again._ "We're the good guys."

Perceptor's eyes merely narrowed in response to Lennox's words.

Danielle hissed at this. "Don't listen to him."

Lennox shot her a look. "Stop it, okay?"

She glared at him.

Returning his attention to Perceptor, Lennox pressed a hand to his chest. "We used to serve with the Autobots," he explained. "I'm Colonel William Lennox, former military head of the unit known as NEST—which stands for Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers."

Danielle could see the cogs beginning to turn in Perceptor's head. In the little time she knew him he seemed optimistic and willing to listen to what people had to say. Her mind was going for it as well, though she fought it vehemently.

"And if you still don't believe me," Lennox continued as he held his hands up. "Then I'll give you the passcode Optimus gave me before we scattered." He took a deep breath and stared deep into Perceptor's eyes. " _Seh-coy-ya-ay_."

The woman didn't miss how Perceptor seemed to freeze up at the word. A heavy moment passed by before his pistons let out a loud _hiss_ and he slowly climbed back to his pedes. The gun in his hand vanished into thin air as he looked over at her.

"Perceptor?" she asked. Was the word a good one or a bad one? "What did he say? What does that word mean?"

The Autobot let out a sigh. " _Sekoiah'æ._ It's Cybertronian for 'friend'. It is derived from Old Cybertronian, a language that has faded into the past and was often only spoken at select ceremonies." His mouth drew into a tight line. "That's why it was our passcode. It's all but been forgotten."

All Danielle could do was let out the tiniest of breaths in response as she stared down the two men who had invaded her home, made her think that their lives were about to turned upside down, quite violently she had to add, before they surprised them with the fact that they were friendlies. At least…she hoped so. They could still be pulling the wool over their eyes.

"How did you find him?" she found herself asking as Epps made his way over to the truck, his posture still stiff from the encounter.

Lennox slowly made his way back over to her and Jetta. "There is still a lot of NEST-tech lying around that hasn't been decommissioned. We hacked into it and used it to monitor for new Cybertronians. Unfortunately, we are not the only ones who use the tech, so the clock is ticking." He casually slid his hands into his jean pockets. "I'm surprised that they haven't raided the place and hauled Perceptor away yet. We knew Perceptor was here only hours after he made landfall."

Danielle's arms went numb at the prospect, and she stared wide-eyed at the man. Jetta took the opportunity of her mother loosening her grip on her and wiggled out of her grasp. She dashed down the stairs and over to Perceptor, where he picked her up and cradled her in his hands.

Epps banged on the side of the truck rather violently, and Danielle's nerves caused her to jump with a small shriek of surprise. But she stilled and her voice failed her when the truck let out a loud " _finally_!" and abruptly split apart into a million pieces.

The pieces rearranged themselves until a tall robot, around the same height as Perceptor, stood where the truck used to be. Large panels that stuck out from either side of its face winked with light blue light. "I thought you got everything under control," it griped to the men in a teasing tone, sounding distinctly male. "Good to see you again, Perceptor!" he greeted as he walked up to the red and black Autobot, a small, but strange contraption appearing in his hand.

Perceptor looked at the device warily. "It is good to see you as well, Wheeljack, though I can't seem to say the same for that invention of yours…"

The new robot, Wheeljack, chuckled. "Ah, don't worry," he said, waving off the other's worry. "It's a spark-signal suppressor and heat signature dampener, or the SSHSD, for short. I'm wearing one right now, so it's past the stage of accidental detonation."

Danielle stifled a gasp at Wheeljack's words, a gasp that ended up working its way free when Perceptor allowed Jetta to perch on his shoulder so he could move his arms out of the way and allow Wheeljack full-access.

"Is that why I couldn't sense you even though you were only a mechnometre from me?" Perceptor asked, curiosity blooming in his voice as well as on his face. The plates on his chest shifted to the sides, revealing his innards. Danielle found herself riveted on the sight.

As she watched, Wheeljack clipped the device to something in Perceptor chest before stepping back. The chestplates closed back up, and Perceptor reached up to retrieve Jetta from his shoulder.

"So the bad guys won't be able to find Perceptor now?" Jetta asked the white Autobot hopefully.

The panels on the Autobot's head flashed once. "They haven't been able to find _me_ ," he assured her.

"But they probably already have a lock on our location," Lennox admitted, pressing his mouth into a tight frown.

Danielle shivered at that, her heart taking off in a full gallop. The first thing her mind went to at Lennox's grave words was her daughter, and the fact that her child was now in danger. She marched over to Lennox, wringing her hands as she went, as the ultimate question pulsed in her head like a drum of war. "If they find us… how badly would they… _hurt_ Jetta?" She had seen what _they_ had done to Transformers, and if they handled another living being that roughly before killing it, she didn't doubt they wouldn't hesitate to harm her daughter.

Lennox turned to her and rested a hand gently on the woman's shoulder. "We won't _let_ them hurt Jetta," he told her seriously. Glancing over at Epps, he gave him an almost imperceivable nod. "That's why we're going to move out _now_." Glancing back at her, he added, "Go, pack lightly. Preferably just a backpack or a messenger bag. Anything inconspicuous."

Somehow, Danielle understood his orders without having to ask him to clarify. She raced back to the house and located her purse in the living room. She took her cell phone out and left it on the couch, her mind echoing back to all the episodes of _NCIS_ she had watched where the main characters were able to track the bad guys using the cell phone signal pinging off of cell phone towers or the GPS tracker in the device. She swooped up the fantasy paperback she was currently reading and tucked it into the purse along with a short novella with pictures in it for Jetta before she dashed upstairs and packed some clothes for Jetta and her favourite stuffed bear into her small _My Little Pony_ backpack.

Rushing back downstairs, the young mother took a cloth shopping bag from IGA and loaded it up with some non-perishable snacks and some water bottles left over from the last major trip to the city they had done. Hopefully, if they were pulled over by the ones after Perceptor, they'd just think that it was a mother, father, daughter, and family friend/godfather/uncle going out for a day-trip or a small business trip. But that was only if they were somehow able to transport Perceptor inconspicuously.

When she came back outside, Jetta was back on the ground, and Wheeljack and Perceptor were helping Lennox and Epps wheel her husband's cargo trailer around from behind the house. Once it was out on the driveway, Perceptor half crawled inside of it and, for the first time since she met him, transformed. She watched in fascination as he seemingly folded down into the form of a medium-sized observatory telescope.

Danielle had to remind herself to breathe, her questions as to what he transformed into finally answered. She watched as Wheeljack pushed him the rest of the way into the trailer, before Epps and Lennox came with one of the only tarps she and Perceptor hadn't used and draped it over him.

Jetta came rushing over to her. "Mummy! Perceptor transforms into a _telescope_!" she gushed. Danielle could practically see the excitement whizzing around inside her daughter's head. Jetta was crazy about space, and it just so happened that the first Transformer she had ever happened to meet and befriend transformed into the very thing that allowed humanity to look at the stars.

"It's exciting, I know," she said with a small smile.

The back doors of the trailer slammed shut and locked with clangs that rung with finality.

Lennox gestured her over with a wave of his hand. "Are there any secluded locations nearby? Forest clearings accessible by road, dirt roads through the trees, or any areas that, if we're being pursued, we can easily disappear into?"

Danielle tried to think of a place that fit those parameters. "I don't know… the prairies are very flat…" she glanced about, as if she would somehow see exactly what he was asking for. But then it hit her. "Willaby Park is not that far from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It might be rather treeless here, but it's only a thirty minute drive to the foothills." She mentally slapped herself. _Only thirty minutes?_ Thirty minutes was no different than an eternity in their situation. _They_ would have no trouble locating them in that span of time. "Where are we going? Going into the trees will only make it harder for us to evade _them_ when they catch up to us."

" _If_ they catch up to us—try to have some optimism," Epps quipped as Wheeljack collapsed into his truck-form and backed up to the hitch of the trailer. Epps lowered the trailer onto the tow hitch and locked it into place. "Wheeljack's been riding with us for more than two years, and we have had no trouble."

Danielle found herself wringing her hands at Epps' words. She was a rather pessimistic individual, and never before had she felt such stress that was fed by her pessimism as she did now. She couldn't afford to let her emotions be bruised when she knew that, without divine intervention, they were probably going to get caught.

The two men checked the trailer and the tow hitch one last time before Danielle and Jetta were told to get into the truck—Wheeljack. Jetta leapt into the back-seat of the sentient Silverado, blatantly excited at the prospect of sitting inside an Autobot. _I wish I could be that carefree_ , she mused as she eased into the seat next to her daughter, muscles tensing at the fact that she had just climbed inside another living being. It felt wrong, even though something in her said it really shouldn't.

She leaned over and helped her daughter buckle in, before she buckled herself in. As Lennox climbed into the driver's seat and Epps set himself into the front passenger seat, Danielle found herself gripping the belt that crossed down across her chest with one hand, and the handle on the door on her right with her other.

 _This is it,_ a small voice whispered deep inside her. _This is the moment when your life truly changes._

She pushed her daughter's backpack closer to her with her knee as Wheeljack pulled ahead, allowing Wheeljack's off-handed comment on the experience of pulling a trailer to pass right over her head as she turned her attention to the house she had called home since Jetta was only two years old. The old log rancher stood strong off the side of the driveway like a silent sentinel, an old friend that had succeeded in protecting her family. And now she had to say goodbye.

Wheeljack didn't linger, and they rolled down the driveway at a fast clip. Despite this, Danielle kept her gaze locked on her home, allowing her mind to linger on the memories she had of her husband and what they had done together there. As they reached the bend of the driveway, she blinked and, for just a moment, she saw her husband standing there, on the porch, his hands tucked into the front pockets of his jeans. He pulled one of his hands out of its pocket and lifted it high. He waved, and Danielle blinked in surprise.

When she opened her eyes again, he was gone, and they drove into the trees that blocked the property from the road.

And Danielle sat back with a newly re-opened pit in her chest, and tears in her eyes.


	6. Remain Calm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so sorry it took me so long to update again. And I'm sorry that this chapter is shorter than the others. The beginning of July turned out to be busy - with the family taking advantage of my dad's days off to prep a part of our field for my horse, Star.
> 
> Day 1 (June 30th), I mowed the grass down so Star wouldn't accidentally colic by eating too much hay, while my brother and father cemented a couple of wood posts so we would have a sturdy place to hang the gate.
> 
> Day 2 (July 1st), we stuck rebar into the ground and essentially spent Canada's 150th birthday stringing electric fence, tying plastic ribbon to the rebar, and checking for sharp pieces of small trees I mowed over.
> 
> The last few days I spent writing when I could because it is Camp NaNoWriMo this month. I promise I won't dawdle so much again for this story - theres only one more chapter after this one. And it's much longer, I promise.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter! You guys rock!

Wheeljack's cabin was silent, the air filled only with the sound of the Autobot's engine. Even Jetta was quiet, only opening her mouth to ask the occasional question—which was unusual for her since she was usually chatting away whenever she was able.

As they pulled out onto the highway that lead to where the geology changed from prairie-lands to the rolling foothills and tree-land, Danielle found herself asking the obvious question as she tried to bury the sorrow that was roiling about at the base of her neck. "Why exactly do we need cover?"

Epps glanced at her over his shoulder. "It's kind of hard to explain," he said with a tiny, but stiff, smile. "Let's just say we have an ace up our sleeves. Something we don't want _them_ to find out about."

It occurred to her right there that Lennox and Epps referred to the government agents always as _them_ , _their_ , and _they_. It was as if that, by saying their actual name, it would jinx the situation and send them straight into trouble.

As the tree-line loomed in the distance, growing rapidly closer, icy prickles climbed up the back of her neck, but when she looked to see what could have caused the sensation, she found the trailer blocked most of what could be seen out the back window. This left Danielle to sit back and stew with worry that something bad was going to happen. She reached over and gently touched her daughter's shoulder, and let out a tiny sigh of relief at the solidness of of it. Everything had happened so quickly, and with the feeling of impending doom, she had started to feel out of touch with reality. It was all so surreal. It was nice to have something to ground her.

Jetta looked up at her mother with large eyes. Her small hands clenched at the edges of the pages of the book she was reading, giving away the fact that she was picking up on the tense atmosphere inside Wheeljack's cabin. _Oh, Jetta, I'm so sorry. You're so brave,_ Danielle thought, her heart breaking for her daughter.

It was all her fault. Her daughter didn't deserve this insecurity. Her life had been as secure as Danielle could make it, calm and peaceful in the countryside near a hamlet. Then, overnight, their lives had come crumbling down around their ears when Perceptor found himself on their tiny plot of land. If they hadn't met him, if he hadn't landed in their laps and had ended up somewhere else, they would be just—

 _No. Don't think that_ , she harshly scolded herself. She knew that if Perceptor hadn't landed where he did, he could have landed somewhere else where people were a lot less kind. Where people cared a lot less about the lives of others.

No, they did the right thing, he had been safe with them. And they _were_ going to get to safety. _Sekoiah'æ_ —Perceptor trusted that password, meaning he trusted Lennox and Epps. They were going to get out of this in one piece.

Hopefully.

A moment later, Danielle decided it wouldn't hurt to pray for their safety, so she bowed her head and closed her eyes. She didn't stop praying, even when she felt Wheeljack vibrate slightly when he drove onto the bridge that spanned over the river that trailed down from the mountains. She only lifted her head and opened her eyes when she felt Jetta relax and lean up against her as she blessfully dropped off to sleep.

Danielle continued to pray, but let out a sigh of relief at the fact that Jetta had managed to fall asleep despite the situation. Hopefully, by the time she awoke, they would have reached safety. She could remember the days while growing up where she grew fed up with how long it took to travel somewhere and opted to fall asleep so the trip passed by faster. Of course, she had never slept during a trip just so that when she opened her eyes, she could ask, "Is it over?"

She reached up and allowed herself to gently stroke her daughter's dark hair as she watched Epps stare out the right side-view mirror. After a moment, she leaned to the side slightly, just enough so she could see a decent angle of reflection herself, and found herself reaching up with a hand to clamp down on her throat in order to keep herself from gasping in alarm.

Instead, she stated in a calm, level tone, "It's _them_ , isn't it?" Her eyes couldn't possibly have been playing tricks on her. There was a whole fleet of black, unmarked vehicles racing up the highway behind them. They were still far ahead of them, but despite that fact and that Wheeljack was not of this world, they would never be able to outrun those vehicles.

And if they tried to get a head start now and put pedal to the metal, they would only end up tipping them off. The SSHSDs would be useless because _they_ would clue in. Danielle never let herself underestimate the government.

She was just glad that Jetta had fallen asleep.

At Epps' solemn nod, Danielle allowed a shaky breath. "W-what do we do?"

"We remain calm," Lennox told her, throwing a stern glance her way.

 _I am trying to remain calm_ , she mentally hissed before she forced herself to sit back and relax. It wouldn't do to injure something if those cars tried to do anything to them. And she needed to be ready to catch Jetta if they rammed them.

 _Please, deliver us!_ she prayed, tipping her head backwards before she leaned slightly to the side and gently wrapped her arms around her daughter. She buried her face in the girl's hair and breathed deeply. She went through the motions of remembering everything about her daughter, just in case something happened to her before they could get to the trees.

Sweat ran down the back of her neck and gathered in her palms as the tension increased. For a moment, she couldn't help but wonder if this was what it felt like for those in Germany who hid Jews in their homes during World War II.

Quicker than she realized could believe, they were driving into the foothills. Epps announced in a tense voice that the unmarked vehicles were only about 500 meters behind them now. Lennox calmly flicked on the left indicator and Wheeljack began to slow was they neared an old logging road access. They turned onto the road a little faster than what Danielle was comfortable with, but they were soon off amongst the trees. It wasn't long before they had rounded a bend and were out of sight from the road.

"Okay… now we're in the trees," Danielle found herself saying, despite the fact she could barely breathe. "Why did we need to drive into the trees?"

Lennox was quick to explain. "Wheeljack is a scientist. And as a scientist from another planet, he managed to create our ticket out of here. You have to see it to believe it, really."

At her confused look, Epps began to clarify. "He made a teleportation device. Like a St—"

Suddenly, something slammed into the trailer. It jack-knifed violently before it snapped from its hitch and went careening into the ditch on the side of the road. Wheeljack fishtailed wildly before he slammed on his breaks and screeched to a halt.

Before she could fully process what was happening, Jetta and her were bucked from their seats. Danielle only just managed to catch herself and her daughter before they were forced to eat dirt.

At the sound of screeching breaks and doors popping open before slamming shut again, Danielle whirled around. She only had to look at the men that now stalked towards them for a millisecond before she stepped to the side so she could block Jetta from their view. She wasn't going to let them touch her baby.

Despite that ferocious thought, she couldn't help but despair. Most of the men coming towards them were dressed in SWAT-like gear, while only a few wore the atypical, James Bond, _Mission Impossible_ -esque villain attire, with their black trench coats, aviators, and leather shoes. She knew it was all up to God now, that they were either going to die or live. The situation was out of her hands, and would be soon out of Lennox's and Epps' as well. They weren't going to be able to hold them off for long with nothing more than a handgun apiece.

"Colonel Lennox!" the man who seemed to be in charge bellowed. A short glance his way told her he had silver hair and carried himself with such a pompous air that she felt nauseated. "We meet again!"

" _Sa_ voy," Lennox huffed, playing with the name with a verbal slump of his shoulders, which were physically rigid with tension. "Figures you'd be leading the pack!"

This 'Savoy' strode towards them, a predatory air radiating from him in a way that Danielle was distinctly reminded of a wolf. She felt Jetta's small hands grip the back of her shirt at the sound of Savoy's voice and Lennox's attempts to start a verbal battle.

Danielle tried to take a deep breath, the air catching in her throat as she slowly began to inch her way closer to were Lennox and Epps stood nearer to the nose of Wheeljack's vehicle-mode. She didn't understand why Wheeljack hadn't already transformed and pulled out some sort of invention to get them out of here. Weren't they just telling her how they were going to get to safety?

 _Perceptor's still in the trailer,_ she realized when she finally reached Lennox's side. She ducked down and maneuvered herself and her daughter so that they were blocked from Savoy's and his men's view by the nose of Wheeljack's alt. She glanced over in the general direction she felt the trailer had gone, but there was no movement.

Terror struck her heart. _What if Perceptor was knocked out by the crash?_ If that was true, how were they ever going to get out of here? They weren't going to leave without him, _right_?

"Shouldn't come as much of a surprise, Lennox," Savoy said, his voice developing a hard edge as he neared, volume of his voice lowering as he drew closer. "But what is even less of a surprise is the fact that you're _here_." He stopped about eight meters away, and drew out a sidearm. When he pointed it towards Lennox, he stated, voice like ice, "We've been unable to locate the Cybertronian we _know_ landed in an area due east of here. I assume you have something to do with that."

Lennox smirked in open defiance at the claim. "We've met too many times on the field."

Danielle was riveted to the exchange, unable to tear her gaze away from it unless the whole situation suddenly escalated. But the distinct feeling of being watched suddenly washed over her, and her attention was ripped away. With Jetta trembling in her arms, she looked up and around, first searching for any of those men in the SWAT suits just in case they had managed to break away while they weren't watching and had somehow managed to make it to the trees.

Before she could look for too long, though, her gaze was drawn up and to the right, until she was looking between two old pines and straight at a hulking metal behemoth standing several hundred feet into the forest. She didn't have to look at it long before she knew that what she was looking at was dangerous, but just as she opened her mouth to scream, to warn Epps and Lennox and Wheeljack about the danger, an explosion rocked the area.

The shockwave threw everyone off of their feet. Danielle hollered as the gravel on the road dug into her back, her worry instantly accelerating when Jetta didn't make a peep. She quickly rolled over and searched for her daughter, and discovered Jetta lying quite still only a few feet away. She scrambled over on her hands and knees, heart palpitating in her chest, but after a hasty examination she let out a tiny sigh of relief—her baby girl was fine, well, as fine as she could be. She had been knocked unconscious by the blast. She would need a doctor, and that scared her.

Panic threatened to swallow her up as her mind brought up everything her daughter's injury could mean, even as another vehicle burst into flame behind her, but she remembered the Cybertronian she saw hiding in the woods. He had just been standing there, watching the encounter. She knew that there was something wrong about it, because she knew it should have been either running away or trying to save Wheeljack and Perceptor (if it even knew that they were here) at sight of the men with the guns.

Gathering her daughter into her arms, she stumbled to her feet and ran back towards Wheeljack, whom Lennox and Epps were taking shelter behind as the soldiers and Savoy's men flew into a frenzy. Bullets filled the air. She slid to her knees and managed to gasp, "There's something in the trees!"

Lennox's gaze whipped around to her. "What?" he barked.

She thrashed her head up and down. "It was standing there, another Transformer. Just watching us, as if it was waiting for something."

Lennox let out a long and low "oh no" as Epps let out a vicious swear.

"That's how they're doing it, how they're slaughtering the Autobots!" Epps exclaimed. "They've got one of _them_ on their side!"

Danielle trained wide eyes on Epps and then on Lennox. "What do we do?!"

Lennox let loose a harsh sigh. "We've got to get out of here." He glanced at his friend out the corner of his eye. "We will have to use the GB—in front of _them_ —we don't have any other choice." At Epps' glare, he hissed, "As soon as Perceptor pulls himself out of the ditch, that Cybertronian is going to start shooting."

There was another loud report as the hidden gun, no doubtably Perceptor's now that she thought about it, suddenly turned itself on the Transformer in the woods. There was a sharp cry, and the ground shook.

"That's our cue to leave," Lennox exclaimed before he rolled to his booted feet and began to run. Epps and Danielle weren't far behind, with Danielle falling behind with the weight of her daughter in her arms.

Bullets bit into the dirt at their heels as Epps pressed a button on something in his hand. Green light flashed into being in the air before them. Danielle glazed over the shock and awe at the sight of a large green ring that expanded from the light. Seconds later, an image of the seaside flickered into being in the green ring. Danielle stumbled slightly at the sight, but a large, metal hand suddenly scooped her and her daughter up and brought them rushing towards the strange apparition.

Danielle let out a scream as they plunged through. A rough shock sent her muscles into violent spasms, and left her whimpering when they were free of the 'portal', as she was suspect. Jetta was still silent, and very still.

There was a brief silence as her and her daughter's rescuer slowed and came to a halt. There was a loud _snap!_ and _whoosh_ , but Danielle didn't look up from her daughter's peaceful face.

* * *

The attack had come so suddenly that there was no way he was able to brace himself. By the time the trailer came to a stop, he was lying with his faceplates pressed into a corner and half-transformed on the ceiling of the trailer's interior. A grunt escaped him as he finished transforming and pulled himself up onto his servos and knees, quietly turning about.

He managed to pull himself free from the mangled remains of the trailer, and kept his audials trained for the presence of those who attacked them. It wasn't long before his scanners picked up on several human life forms in addition to Danielle, Jetta, Lennox, and Epps. He pulled his sniper rifle out of subspace and clicked the safety off as he neared the road.

Perceptor gently lowered himself down onto his front and scoped out the situation, keeping low enough that he remained out of sight but was still able to grasp the situation. He lowered his targeting monocle as he counted the dark vehicles that filled the road, tallying five boxy ones and two sleeker ones that rode low to the ground. Wheeljack had stopped farther up the road and was playing the part of 'lifeless vehicle', all the while his passengers crowded in close to the nose of his alt-form in case they had to use him as some sort of shield.

His processor whirred through the data as he tried to take stock of the situation. These men in their dark armour-like coverings must be who Danielle had told him about—the ones that went around killing Cybertronians no matter what faction they were sided with. They had essentially trapped them all since they were exposed and Wheeljack couldn't transform unless he wanted to expose himself.

Perceptor brought his rifle out in front of him and peered through its scope. He had grown fond of Danielle and Jetta in the short time he knew them, and the only way they were going to get out of this alive was if they had some sort of distraction that they could use to get away. He trained his rifle on the engine-block on one of the low, fast cars and fired. The explosion wasn't as big as he had anticipated, but it was sufficient in stirring up the soldiers and their apparent leader, a grey-haired man by the name of Savoy.

Unfortunately, his companions did not use this distraction to try and get away. Instead, they were picking themselves up, having been knocked over by the explosion. The soldiers were beginning to calm down and form into a tight formation that reminded him of what he had seen on the battlefield, so he focused on one of the boxy vehicles parked in the thick of it all and fired.

It exploded in a fireball bigger than the first, and it revealed to him something that chilled him to his very core. The bright orange light reflected off something in the forest, and that immediately set alarms off inside his helm. From what he had gathered from observation, nothing organic on Earth could reflect light quite like that. There was someone in the trees.

A quick scan confirmed his fears—there was another Cybertronian hiding amongst the trees, the dark grey of his armour helping him to blend into the shadows. What was strange was Perceptor's scans could only pick up on the physicality on the Cybertronian—he was unable to pick up on a faction ID or identity. It was like he was a ghost, and there was no doubt he was extremely dangerous.

The longer he watched the ghost, the more he picked up the tiny aspects of body language that he had. That Cybertronian was watching, waiting. But for what?

That question didn't matter at the moment. The mech in the forest was a threat. A threat that had to be neutralized for the time being. He turned his rifle on the mech in the trees and fired. Relief blossomed in his spark when he saw that his shot had found its mark, nailing the mech in the shoulder. He waited until the mech toppled to the ground before he looked over at the humans who were trying to get him away from these humans that had trapped them, and let out a sigh of relief when he saw them running down the road. It didn't escape his notice that Danielle was now carrying Jetta, and it was causing her to lag behind as Lennox and Epps charged ahead, their organic frames clearly more suited for running than Danielle's was.

He glanced at the other humans as the sound akin to the air being torn asunder registered in his audials. The soldiers were momentarily stunned, but they were quickly recovering thanks to their leader's desperate yells. He looked over at what could have possibly caused such a reaction in soldiers that had obviously been thoroughly trained, and his optics widened slightly at the sight of a massive portal that had appeared out of thin air. He hadn't seen such a thing since… well since when the war was still on Cybertron.

His window of opportunity quickly closing, Perceptor pulled himself out of the ditch and took off running after the humans and Wheeljack's rapidly retreating alt-form. He quickly caught up with Danielle and Jetta and gently scooped them up before he leapt into the portal.

The feeling of electricity running over his plating was not the most pleasant sensation, but as his pedes stepped out onto soft green grass and the portal snapped shut behind him, he assumed that it was some sort of side effect. Air hissed from his vents as he turned to look back the way he came, his shoulders slumping in relief at the fact that they had been transported to a new place, to safety, and that the portal they had escaped through had disappeared into thin air, cutting them off from the enemy.

Curiosity nipped at him moments later. He swept his surroundings with a cursory gaze and stilled at what he saw. They had materialized a few paces away from a large metal ring, hard concrete ending only a few of his large paces away. The long stretch of concrete was lined on both sides with large metal buildings that appeared tall enough that he would be able to stand up in them if he wanted to. The area was only sparsely populated with more humans, going about their business.

At this point, Danielle's emotions seemed to finally catch up with her, and she began to weep. It was then that he realized that Jetta had remained unconscious throughout the whole ordeal.

A cursory scan brought a frown to his faceplates.


	7. A Little Bit of Hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! The last chapter! Thanks so much for sticking with me. This was the first multichapter story I knew would be finished before I even began to post it, and I'm kind of half thrilled and half sad to see it be finished.
> 
> Thank you for your lovely comments, bookmarks, and kudos!
> 
> This may be the last chapter of this story, but this was the first instalment of the post-DoTM, pre-AoE AU I've thought up. Another story will come along eventually :)

Danielle held her daughter tightly in her arms as men and women in fatigues came running up to them with a gurney. At first, she didn't want to let go of her precious child, a part of her fearing that Jetta would shatter as soon as she let go and she was no longer in her arms. One of the women was able to talk her through her panic.

"Ma'am, your daughter has received some form of injury. We have to take her to see one of the doctors on base," the woman told her, her voice calm and strong.

Danielle shook her head, a shaky huff escaping her. "No! I can't let her go, she's my baby!"

The woman reached for Jetta, but the young mother reacted and jerked away, keeping her daughter out of the soldier's reach. "No!"

A strong hand landed on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. She whirled around and found herself staring wide-eyed at Lennox, who pinned her with a serious look. "Danielle, that's enough. Let them do their job. Jetta's in good hands."

She stared at him, a hint of betrayal shot through her heart, but eventually her more logical gained control of the situation, and she blinked. She let out a long sigh, casting her gaze down to the concrete in an attempts to ground herself. A moment later, she managed to grind out, "Fine."

With some help, she gently lay Jetta down on the gurney. One of the women threw a blanket over her and then they were racing away with her, pushing the gurney off towards one of the metal buildings. Danielle made to follow after them, but a sharp pain in her right thigh and Lennox's hand on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks.

"Will she be alright?" she heard Perceptor ask in a tone that sounded like it barely concealed concern. She ignored his words as she twisted around in order to look down at her thigh. Why was there pain? The pain was intense, and she wanted it to stop.

At first, she couldn't see anything wrong, so she ran a hand down her thigh to see if she could feel it. She assumed it was a muscle cramp or spasm. She often got those when she didn't drink enough water, and she hadn't had much of a chance of keeping hydrated over the last few days thanks to her constant worrying and being on the run. If she remembered correctly, the only time she had felt completely worry-free was when she had been at church, mere _hours_ before they went on the run.

With searching fingers she ran her hand down the front of her thigh before searched the back. It didn't take her long before she found an anomaly—there was a small bump, and a hole in her pant-leg. A finger then dipped into something warm and sticky, and her face screwed up in confusion. Withdrawing her hand, she brought it up in front of her face so she could get a good look at it. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of a crimson substance that drowned her middle finger. It was blood, enough of it that it was beginning to trail down her finger and onto the back of her right hand. Eyes widening in dawning realization and horror, she looked up the human closest to her—Lennox—terror in her eyes at what this implied.

Her knees gave out.

Vision darkening at the edges, the sensation of being cradled in someone's arms came over her. The world around her shifted and blurred, and numbness seeped into her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

She was vaguely aware when she was carried into a building and when she was set down, but by then clouds had gathered in her mind and she could hardly focus long enough to determine where she was.

Something pricked the back of her hand. Someone was bending over her, speaking to her, but she couldn't understand a word that was being said. _Jetta? Where is my baby girl?_

The world dimmed before she could think of an answer, and despite the fact she desperately wanted to know where Jetta was, all the urgency she felt was in her mind. The rest of her body didn't respond in the panic she expected. Dimly, she wished that her body did, before she gave up and allowed herself to be swallowed up in a drug-induced oblivion.

Five hours later, the effects of the anesthetic she had been given wore off, and she slowly returned to the waking world with a dry mouth and pinching pain six inches above her right knee. It took her a moment to realize that she was lying down, and when she finally did, confusion welled up and pooled in her skull like a murky lake.

She thought long and hard, trying to apply the logic that came with the experiance that came with being mother. She forced herself to calm down by taking long, deep breaths until she regained some form of clarity, and blinked several times until the ceiling above her came into focus.

Okay: the ceiling looked like what she remembered from the hospital when Jetta was being kept overnight after the surgery on her foot, with its light grey fibreglass paneling framed in by warm grey frames. She had stared at the ceiling of Jetta's Timothy Garland General room for hours when they were there and it was just like the one she was staring at now. She had to be in a hospital, and the more she thought about, Danielle the more the memories of what happened before she lost consciousness began to blaze across her mind's eye. She had been injured in some way, and she had, maybe, gone into shock?

With that memory, the memory of what happened to Jetta came like a slap to the face, and she found herself bolting upright in the bed she found herself in. The covers fell off her front and pooled in her lap as a cry tore free from her throat. "JETTA!"

The hospital room door swung open less than a moment later, and a man quickly entered. Danielle blinked in surprise, unable to keep herself from gasping at his abrupt entrance. The man was young, appearing to be about thirty with short black hair cropped in a military buzz, bright aquamarine eyes, and skin with a slight ruddy tone to it. He was dressed in a set of royal blue scrubs under a white lab coat, and a pair of black sneakers donned his feet, telling her that he was a member of the hospital staff.

He rushed to her side, dropping the clipboard in his hands onto her blanket-covered legs. He grabbed her shoulders, gently squeezing them as he looked directly into her eyes. Danielle found herself riveted by the blue of his irises, but they didn't stop the questions and the panic she was feeling. "Where's Jetta? Where's my daughter?!"

"Jetta's just next door, Mrs. DeClan," the man assured. "You have nothing to worry about."

Danielle reached up and grasped his wrists. "I need to see her!"

"You need to rest. Your daughter is fine. She is resting, and won't be awake for several hours. You need to do what your daughter is doing," he insisted gently, a faint accent making itself known.

Danielle hesitated at his words. Her hesitation lasted just long enough for the man to notice and gently guide her back down onto the pillow.

A female nurse entered the room and assisted in settling her back in. She pulled the covers up to her shoulders before checking the IV bag hanging next to the bed.

The man took this time to introduce himself. "I'm Dr. Joseph Dalca," he said as he picked up the clipboard and went over the data on the pages. After a moment, he nodded and smiled. "Good news! The emergency surgery on your leg went well, and it should heal up completely in a few short weeks. Until then, if you want to move around, you'll need to use a wheelchair. We have to make it a point to keep from putting any stress on the wound or the stitches."

"When can I see my daughter?" Danielle asked, unable to keep tears from springing to her eyes.

Dr. Dalca paused and regarded her for a moment. He let out a sigh that a medical doctor would only let loose when he knew his patient wasn't going to listen to a word he said unless there was some sort of compromise. "Alright. You'll get to see your daughter—but only after you get some rest! Have a two-hour nap and I'll have Nurse Hier here come and wheel you over to your daughter's room."

Danielle frowned. "Fine."

* * *

Humans were so similar to Cybertronians it was uncanny, but there was one blatant difference. They were delicate.

Perceptor watched as Danielle collapsed into Lennox's arms only moments after Jetta was rushed into one of the many metal buildings nearby. He watched as Lennox sprinted towards the same building, running faster than he had when they were running from the soldiers on the other side of the portal.

He looked down at the nearest human, Epps, with widening optics. "What is wrong?" he asked. "What happened?"

Epps' expression was grim when he looked up to meet his gaze. "It looks like Danielle caught a bullet to the leg." With that, he walked off. To where, the scientist didn't know.

He glanced at Wheeljack with open worry. "Danyelle and Jetta… those humans that shot at us, they didn't care that they would hurt them."

Wheeljack nodded sombrely. "Yeah. Cemetery Wind has garnered the reputation of being Decepticons in human flesh, and they wear it proudly."

 _Cemetery Wind._ That was the name of the organization that was out to destroy each and every Cybertronian on this planet. A shiver ran down the length of his backstruts, before he searched through the words he had picked up from the device Danielle had on her when they first met. Eventually, he came upon the words and compared them to their Cybertronian counterparts for a clearer understanding. When it came to groups giving themselves name when they were out to make a change, there was often a message built into the name.

The closest Cybertronian word he could find that matched the word 'cemetery' was _ravaza_ , which meant 'ancient burial ground' or 'tomb' in common Tronix. 'Wind' had seven different words in Tronix and even more in the high language, Nobelitus, but thankfully he had picked up on the English translation when he had scanned Danielle's communication device.

' **Wind** , noun: 1) a: _a natural movement of air of any velocity;_ especially: _the Earth's air or gas surrounding a planet in natural motion horizontally._ b: _an artificially produced movement of air._ c: _solar wind, stellar wind_. 2) a: _a destructive force or influence._ b: _a force or agency that carries along or influences._ '

Perceptor stilled at the definitions of the words when they were combined. When Wheeljack uttered the name, it had sounded ominous despite the fact that he didn't know what it meant at first glance. Now that he knew what they meant, he couldn't help but feel that the danger presented by their existence had increased tenfold.

For a brief time, he had considered that maybe the humans of Cemetery Wind didn't know the entirety of what they were doing. But after what he had witnessed back on the other side of the portal, he now knew that they knew _exactly_ what they were doing. How could a group with a name that essentially meant 'a destructive force with the intent to bury or make something disappear' be anything other than absolute monsters?

A servo suddenly clapped him on the shoulder, affectively tearing him from his worrying thoughts. The owner of the servo turned out to be Wheeljack, whose helm-fins winked apologetically. "It'll take time to get used to this…change. But don't worry," the corners of his optics practically crinkled, "Cemetery Wind doesn't know where this place is. And the humans say they have some of the best of the best when it comes to human doctors here, so Danielle and Jetta will be a-okay." He slowly began to walk to one of the metal buildings on the far side of the complex, leaving Perceptor no choice other than to follow. He hadn't seen another Cybertronian for a good long while, and he wasn't about to let Wheeljack out of his sight, no matter how many cringe-worthy memories of experiments and inventions they had collaborated in threatened to surface.

Perceptor managed a small smile, just to give the impression that he had a small glimmer of hope. In truth, he did have some hope, but it felt like he had less than and atom's worth of it. Perhaps, perhaps…his hope would grow over time?

* * *

Danielle pretended to sleep until Nurse Hier came into the room and "woke" her up. To her surprise, the nurse hardly put any effort into helping her from the bed to the wheelchair, which spoke of extensive experiance.

The wheelchair lurched as the nurse unlocked the wheels. Danielle gripped the armrests as she was wheeled briskly out of the hospital room and out into the hall. She quickly grew accustomed to the clip at which she was being pushed and had settled in by the time they arrived at what he assumed was her daughter's room.

Dr. Dalca was waiting by the door when they got there, and opened the door for them. Nurse Hier didn't waste any time in maneuvering her over to the side of the hospital bed that practically swallowed up the young, black-haired girl.

Danielle was already leaning forward and reaching for Jetta before Nurse Hier was able to lock the wheels of the wheelchair again. Her eagerness to touch her daughter earned her a grunt from the nurse and a hum of concern from the doctor, but she ignored them. Her daughter was more important.

She grasped her daughter's hand and scootched to the edge of her seat. She peered into her daughter's face and took in how pale it was—a sight that brought back flashes of her still form lying crumpled on the gravel-covered ground and the sound of gunfire. She blinked the images and the sounds firmly away, and forced herself to focus on her daughter's face, which seemed so peaceful after what they had been through.

Danielle's heart broke at the thought of what Jetta was going to wake up to. What life could a little girl lead on a military base?

Slowly, she turned and looked up at the doctor. "How is she?"

Dr. Dalca crossed his arms and gave her a smile. "She is doing well, Mrs. DeClan. You two went through a lot yesterday. She's sleeping, as _you_ should be." His eyes twinkled in a way that told her he was half teasing her with those last few words.

Danielle smiled in relief before her frown reappeared. "What do you think happened to her? Everything was happening so fast, there were explosions and gunfire and…and…"

Dalca stepped forward and rested a hand on her shoulder. "It was nothing you did. She had a severe concussion, but you had nothing to do with it. Dr. Pierce, our resident pediatrician, gave her a clean bill of health, and she should be out of here within the next thirty-six hours."

Danielle's heart leapt at the news, but she still had questions. "How long will I have to stay? I don't want Jetta to go on without me, she has no one to take care of her here."

"There is nothing to worry about. Your wound is healing nicely, and there's no sign of infection," he assured. He pulled a sheet of paper from his clipboard and handed it to her, saying, "You will be released at the same time your daughter is so you two can be processed and have help easing into your new life here. But I want you to come back and see me every two days so we can check up on the progress of your wound, alright?"

She nodded, but at the mention of what was to come her began stomach turn. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, an action she repeated several times. She had to be strong, strong for Jetta. Everything was going to turn out alright. Jetta might end up surprising her and bounce back from what had happened to them. She might even grow accustomed to their new life right away.

It was all she could hope for.

* * *

Wheeljack lead Perceptor to a metal building that shouldered a sign captioned with "Laboratory Workshop" in bright, stencilled, yellow letters above smaller white, stencilled letters that seemed to hurry to explain, "Hazardous Workplace: Do not enter without safety equipment and advanced warning."

Perceptor stopped and regarded the sign for a moment, before turning a raised eyebrow on his fellow scientist. "This must be _your_ workshop, Wheeljack."

His comment tore a laugh from Wheeljack's voicebox. "Guilty, guilty," he chortled as he pushed open the sliding metal door that took up much of the front of the building, exposing the brightly lit interior within. Wheeljack gestured for him to enter first, and he obliged him.

The first thing that greeted him inside was a clear wall made of a substance he couldn't identify. Beyond that was an expansive room that appeared to take up the rest of the building, save for some storage rooms. In Wheeljack's absence, humans in white clothing and protective gear had seemingly taken over the space.

With obvious curiosity, Perceptor watched as one of the humans set fire to something in a clear container. Instead of burning, the substance turned black and expanded uncontrollably, shooting up into the air like a long black tentacle. The human holding the container jerked back, before rushing off to put it on a nearby table and study it.

"What sort of chemical reaction was that?" he asked as he reached up and gently tapped on the clear surface in the general direction of the experiment from his perspective.

Wheeljack stepped up beside him and regarded the human for half a moment. "That was fire added to dodecacarbon monodecahydrate and sodium bicarbonate, or, as the humans are more likely to call it: fire plus sucrose plus baking soda. They've nicknamed the reaction the 'Black Snake', and it doesn't really serve a purpose… _yet_." The human pumped his arms in the air, prompting and laugh and nod of approval from the white mech. "It looks like Richards managed to get his hands on some energon." He glanced at Perceptor. "Usually the humans use a bit of alcohol or natural gas when they mess with that combination. It usually doesn't react that fast."

Perceptor hummed in response, but said nothing until Wheeljack lead him into the workshop. Wheeljack went straight over to where Richards was, leaving Perceptor to stand by the door and take the whole operation in.

The whole surreality of this new chapter of his life felt distant, that what he was looking at, what was going on inside of this building was fake, but real at the same time. It wasn't until he walked over and placed a servo on one of the Cybertronian-sized tables that he finally felt grounded. From a life in space to a life on Earth amongst humans was not the most drastic change he had had to endure, but to find out that the Autobots potentially now had two foes to keep an eye out for changed things. He never thought he would live long enough to see this day.

Wheeljack joined him again shortly. "This will be your domain as well once you're debriefed by Lennox and General Montgomery," he stated with a short gesture at the open space.

"What, and share the space with you?" Perceptor asked in a joshing tone, hoping to banish the worried hollow under his chestplates that only continued to grow. "We both know how much you appreciate your space—it's surprising you've let other's work in here already."

One of the white mech's servos drifted up and scratched at the back of his helm in a distinctly not-Cybertronian gesture. "I've never really balked at having people or bots in the lab with me, _they_ just don't like to be in the lab with me when I'm building and testing a new invention."

"I suppose."

Wheeljack shrugged. "You might not like working around others or around my explosion- prone devices, but I can tell that you'll come to like it around here. Just you wait." He patted the telescope-former on the shoulder, his fingers brushing on the wound Perceptor had received from the exo-volcano before he met Danielle and Jetta. He winced. "Let's go get that looked at."

* * *

The Jeep rattled a bit as he turned the key and shut it off. In the silence that followed, he sat back and stared over at the discrete pre-fabricated log cabin. The familiar gold curtains hanging in the living room window were drawn back, allowing the light to flood in and give him a glimpse of what was inside.

A fancy glass Earth globe stood on the electric fireplace he knew stood under the window, and a simple pink plastic cup sat next to it. There was movement in the master bedroom window, telling him that someone was home. His heart began to beat harder at this.

It was enough motivation to bring him to push open the driver's door. He jumped out of the Jeep, his combat boots scattering pine needles as he turned and pulled his duffle out of the back. He slung it over his shoulder as he quickly made his way over to the front door, a cheery whistle rising from his lips as his feet carried him home.

He practically flew up the front log steps, and he didn't seem to alight until he was on the doormat and knocking on the craftsman door. He eyed the familiar stained glass on the top quarter of the door, his excitement rising as he waited.

There was a long stretch of silence after he finished knocking. It stretched on long enough that he feared that his knocked went unheard, but just as he raised his hand to knock again, he heard someone sigh. Seconds later, the door swung open, and he found himself standing face-to-face with the most beautiful woman on planet Earth.

It took her a moment, but when she realized what she was looking at, her face lit up like a firework. "Will!"

She was throwing herself at him before he could blink, but he was ready for her nonetheless. He dropped his duffle and wrapped his arms around his wife, burying his face into the crook of her neck. Sara giggled when the stubble on his face rubbed just the right way.

"I missed you," he told her as he squeezed her tight. "I missed you so much."

* * *

Twenty-four hours later, shortly after the clock struck 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon, Danielle was given back her clothes, which had been laundered while she was recovering. She was given a pair of crutches and helped over to the small bathroom attached to her hospital room, where she changed and freshened up. Once she was done, she was guided out of the room by Nurse Hier, where she was met by Dr. Dalca, a woman doctor, and her daughter, who was now wide-awake and situated in a wheelchair that made her seem tiny and frail.

"Mrs. DeClan, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Erica Pierce, our resident pediatrician," Dr. Dalca said with a gesture to the short woman.

Dr. Pierce smiled and extended a hand as she tucked a copper bang behind her ear. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Danielle grasped the proffered hand and allowed her to shake it. "Likewise." She smiled in gratitude and quickly brought her hand back to grip her right crutch. "Thank you for making sure my baby was okay."

Dr. Pierce's smile grew. "I'm glad I was able to help. Your daughter is a treasure."

"Good, you're up and about," a familiar voice piped up. Danielle turned her head and looked over her shoulder, her eyes landing on the now-familiar form of Lennox. The sandy-haired man came to a stop next to her, and angled himself so Jetta and her could clearly see him. "General Montgomery would like to speak with you before you're given a tour of the island and given your housing assignment."

Danielle blinked in surprise at his words. "G-general? Why does he want to talk to me?"

Jetta piped up before Lennox could reply. "We're on an island?" she looked up at her mother. "How did we get to an island, Mummy?"

"I don't know, honey," she found herself murmuring, dazed at that fact. She didn't have the chance to get a good look of her surroundings before she had been rushed to the hospital.

"General Montgomery just wants to debrief you on what you're supposed to do now," he explained. A grinned popped up on his face. "Don't worry, he doesn't bite."

* * *

After a quick goodbye to the medical staff that had taken care of them, Lennox lead them outside, pushing Jetta in her wheelchair over to a Jeep waiting by the curb. Once they were seated within the vehicle, Lennox drove directly towards what had to be the largest metal building of the complex, one that resembled an enormous quonset hut.

He didn't waste any time and swiftly ushered them into the building. It was slow going for Danielle since she wasn't used to the crutches, but she eventually made it to the door. Once inside, it took her a moment to take in the dark interior and the apparent fact that the only lighting came from a few small pot-lights in the ceiling and the numerous monitors and screens scattered around the expansive main room.

Every single individual she could see posted at their stations was dressed in some sort of fatigues, and Danielle couldn't help but feel the serious atmosphere of the room.

At the near-centre of the room, there was a large round table, and by that table stood an imposing man dressed in a uniform that bespoke of his rank. His hat was tucked under his arm as he stared down at the surface of the round table. When Danielle drew closer, she saw that most of the tabletop was taken up by one massive, circular screen.

Lennox stopped eight feet from him and clicked his heels together as he snapped a salute. "General, I've brought Mrs. Danielle DeClan to see you."

The General looked up and gave Lennox a stiff nod. "Thank you, Colonel. Dismissed."

For a moment, Danielle's mind stalled. Lennox was a Colonel? She never thought that he had a rank so high, but the more she thought about it the more she realized how he carried himself and how he went about doing things seemed to announce it like a trumpet blast.

She managed to fully process that fact by the time Lennox turned from the general and offered her an encouraging smile. She barely picked up on what he whispered to her as he walked past, telling her that he would keep an eye on Jetta until she was done, before he was wheeling her back out the door.

Danielle hopped unsteadily forward, bringing her one step closer to the table in an action she hoped conveyed the message that she was ready and willing to listen to what the general had to say. She tensed her muscles to stop her trembling, and her wound smarted.

"Mrs. DeClan, I am General Montgomery, Canadian military," he stated, his voice aged with experiance and years on the battlefield. "Would you like to step into my office?" he gestured to a simple door tucked between two tall computer banks.

"S-sure," she managed to stutter.

General Montgomery offered a stiff smile before he turned and lead the way. It was less than a minute before Danielle found herself sitting across a desk from the general.

"I trust that, by now, you know why you have been relocated to this island," he said as he clasped his hands together and rested them on the desktop.

She jerked a nod, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves and doing whatever she could to meet his gaze. "Yes."

"You understand that Cemetery Wind is the enemy, and that they operate seperate from the American government?"

This piece of information was new to her—the fact that Cemetery Wind _wasn't_ the government—but she found herself uttering, "Yes," anyway.

"Do you also understand that you will never be able to leave this island now that Cemetery Wind knows of your connection with Perceptor, and, in extension, all Cybertronian-kind?"

This time tears sprung to her eyes. She was unable to hold them back now that she knew for sure that Cemetery Wind would come after her and her daughter in order to get at Perceptor. "Y-yes."

At this, the general sighed and leaned back slightly. "Let us be frank here, Mrs. DeClan," he said, his tone softening. "You and your daughter are the first documented case of a single mother and a young child put in direct danger thanks to Cemetery Wind's quest to eradicate all traces of Cybertronians on Earth."

Her palms began to sweat. "That's because Jetta and I—we were the first to bring a Transformer into our home. …Right?"

"With the evidence and what happened on the other side of the Ground Bridge, I can offer a very shaky 'yes'," he said with a firm nod.

Danielle managed to suck in a deep breath at his words. She let herself lean back slightly in the wooden chair she had situated herself in. "Then… what now?"

General Montgomery's smile returned, forming into one that seemed more relaxed now that the first part of the explanation for the situation was out of the way. "This is Greenspan Island, though most have come to call it by it's nickname, 'Autobot Isle'. It is located approximately 200 nautical miles west from the Queen Charlotte Islands, and is considered the farthest island from the coast that is still considered Canadian land."

Danielle straightened at this, her mind instantly judging how far away the island was the mainland and the home she had once shared with her husband. It quickly became too much, and she had to stop before her eyes developed a far-off look or her head began to hurt. She couldn't afford that right now. "So Greenspan is Greenspan Island, British Columbia. Canada," she managed to say. "Jetta and I… we're from just outside Willaby Park, Alberta." She gulped. "Colonel Lennox, Epps, Perceptor, Jetta… and the bot who had been with Lennox and Epps and me… we ran through that portal, and we traveled over a thousand kilometres in less than a second?!" How? _How_ was that possible?"

"I know it is a lot to take in, Mrs. DeClan, but civilian life here is quite pleasant," he stated, seeing the shock that had bled out onto her expression. "Just off base, in the nearby valley, we have a small community for our small civilian population." He opened a drawer to his right and pulled out a couple of maps around the same size as an eight and a half by eleven inch sheet of paper. He slid them across the desk to her, and she regarded them for a moment before she picked them up.

The first map was a map of an island— _the_ island. ' _Greenspan Island_ ' was typed in bold black, stencil-like letters in the top right corner of the first page. The island itself was shaped like a warped pentagon, with a point on the east side stretching out into a sharp, knife-like shape caused by the ridge-feature that stretched five kilometres out into the ocean, named ' _Knifepoint Ridge_ '. The north side of the island was scooped out in a bay at least three kilometres wide, and was marked as ' _Heart of the Island Harbour_ '.

Just south of Knifepoint Ridge, practically running alongside it, was a deep fjord, with the name ' _Ingleman Fjord_ '. The western coast of the island was rather empty, sporting nothing but a small beach called ' _Skipstone Beach_ ' and a river that emptied out into the ocean after winding across the island from its source at the base of the mountain that rose out of the middle of the island. The mountain sported the name ' _Mt. Shamira_ ' and the river was christened ' _Grace's River_ '. Lining the southern coast of the island were five distinctive manmade pillars. Small letters explained that they were sensor towers, with the middle one doubling as a lighthouse left over from World War II. There was a lighthouse on every shore due to the sheer size of the island, and each one was marked on the map.

In the centre of it all, at the base of Mt. Shamira, there was a shallow valley, and in that valley there was the mentioned civilian settlement, aptly named ' _Hopeville_ '.

 _Hope._ These people had hope.

Could she let herself have hope?

She put the island map down on the desk and regarded the town map, taking in the fact that there was a general store, an outdoor swimming pool, multiple mobile homes and other houses that were noted as being quick-builds. There was a park at the centre of the town, a community garden, and a small school. All in all, the place seemed very quaint.

Something fluttered in her chest like a warm glow. Was that hope?

Hope for her daughter's future? For her own?

* * *

The tour was quick. After her meeting with the general was concluded, Lennox appeared in the office doorway and ushered her back to the jeep. He then proceeded to drive her and her daughter on an round-about route through the town, pointing out little things and suggesting things that either Danielle or Jetta might like to do once they had settled in.

Danielle found herself riveted on the lushness of the greenery that whipped by as they raced down the road at a calm 40 kilometres an hour. The plants were all shades and hues of emerald, splashed with all colours when the plants sported flowers, and the pine trees grew tall and full. It reminded her of her childhood home, where she had lived before she had met her husband. She had lived deep within the British Columbian interior, which was a dryer climate than what could be found on Greenspan Island, but no less stunning.

As they pulled up in front of a quaint mobile home with slate-grey siding and black trim, Danielle wondered if it wouldn't be as hard to settle in here as she had first thought.

A small maple tree sat in a pot sat on the front stoop, dropping the occasional leaf as Lennox helped them out of the jeep. Danielle hobbled a few steps up the path leading to the front steps as Lennox wheeled Jetta all the way up and parked her there. Danielle found herself staring out onto the street taking in the houses that contained her soon to be neighbours with the corners of her mouth slowly curling down.

It had been years since she had lived so closed to others—and Perceptor's arrival hadn't given her the crowded, claustrophobic feeling she would often get in town, despite the fact Willaby Park was so small. She wasn't sure how she would feel about living so close to strangers, but after a moment of thought, she couldn't help but muse that she would get used to it, once she got to know them. She would _have_ _to_ get used to it.

The ground under her feet vibrated slightly in a steady beat, snapping her our of her worried musing. A shadow half-fell on her, prompting her to look up, and her eyes widened when she saw who owned the shadow. "Perceptor!"

The red and black scientist smiled softly. "Hello, Danielle," he greeted. "It seems I have finally managed to 'catch up' with you, as I have heard some humans put it."

Danielle felt the corners of her mouth rise at his words. "Yes, you have," she said.

"I came to see if you have found your place here on the island, and it seems that you have," he stated. He gave the quaint dwelling a once-over with his eyes, before he looked down at Lennox. "Thank you for taking care of my friends."

The colonel nodded. "You're welcome."

"This is our new home?" Jetta asked, causing Danielle to do a few quick hops so she could turn around.

She regarded her daughter for a moment. She knew that Jetta had asked that question because she knew, or had guessed at what had now become of their life. She could hear it in her voice. "Yes, honey, it is," she replied as she made her way over to her daughter. Once there, she placed a comforting hand on top of her head. Then, taking that had, she reached down and grasped one of the girl's own. "And we will make it our own. Don't you worry."

Danielle was willing to make sure that her daughter would have the chance to experience a normal life again. She knew that the girl really didn't understand what was going on, despite how intelligent she was turning out to be. The mother wasn't sure how much Jetta knew about what had happened, that the reason she was here was because Cemetery Wind wanted to hurt her and wouldn't hesitate to lay a hand on her despite the fact she was only a child.

But as long as they were here on Greenspan Island, she trusted the men and women who worked to keep them safe to do their job.

Unfortunately for her, little did she know that the reason they had been targeted was because Cemetery Wind had a singular goal in mind, something above and beyond just targeting and eradicating all Cybertronian life.

And that taste of danger she had experienced?

That was just the beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm hoping to publish a new chapter every second day, so keep a sharp eye out for new updates :3


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